But when his older daughters Geeta and Babita come home after beating two boys in response to derogatory comments, he realizes their potential to become wrestlers and begins coaching them.

Once there, Geeta makes friends and begins to disregard the discipline taught by Mahavir under duress from her coach Pramod Kadam, whose training methods and wrestling techniques completely differ from her father's.

Determined to continue assisting his daughters, Mahavir obtains tapes of Geeta's previous unsuccessful bouts and coaches her by pointing out her errors over the phone.

Divya V. Rao, a member of Disney's creative team, read a newspaper article in 2012 about Mahavir Singh Phogat, who trained his daughters to become world champions.

[10] Months prior to being approached for with the script, Khan had invited the Phogat sisters onto his television talk show Satyamev Jayate, interviewing them on the first episode of season three in 2014.

"[88] With the film being set in multiple decades, the cinematographer Satyajit Pande and colorist Ashirwad Hadkar experimented with a number of tests for skin tones and costumes during the pre-production stage.

[89] The music for the film is composed by Pritam, with lyrics penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya in Hindi, Rajesh Malarvannan in Tamil and Rajshri Sudhakar in Telugu.

"[126] Ananya Bhattacharya of India Today gave a four out of five-star rating and wrote, "the fights, emotional turmoil, the father-daughter tiffs, take centre-stage in Dangal."

Calling it an "exhilarating creation" and praising the acting performances, she wrote, "the raw, rough, visceral choreography of the fights ... evokes sheer awe".

[129] Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter felt the film is driven by "emotional resonance, technical artistry and compelling performances" while adding that "it's so thrilling to watch.

Deepa Gauri of Khaleej Times wrote that Khan "puts in such an earnest and inspired performance that [it] will go down in the history of Indian cinema as one of the finest.

"[132] Maitland McDonagh wrote for Film Journal International that "[a]ll four actresses playing Geeta and Babita are strikingly good, and Khan stands out as the deeply flawed Mahavir.

"[133] Aniruddha Guha of MensXP.com thought that Khan captured the character's "highs and lows with flourish" and called it a "truly great performance", while adding that "the girls of 'Dangal' are a real find.

[135] Raja Sen of Rediff.com felt Khan's character was "both fascinating and flawed" and added that he is "a winner utterly sure of his beliefs who bends the world around him to his will.

[136] Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu noted in his personal blog that Khan brought out the contradicting nature of the character "beautifully" and called it "one of his finest performances.

"[137] Variety magazine's Owen Gleiberman felt that Khan, despite looking like a "jock version of Salman Rushdie ... with a tight-lipped mask, [he] finds a hundred ways to communicate emotion.

Reviewing for The Hindu, Namrata Joshi wrote that the film despite aiming not to hide "chinks in the feminist armour", it does not explore its "dilemmas and complexities" and only "brush[es] things under the easy nationalistic carpet" by "justifying everything with "nation before the individual" logic."

"[140] Al Jazeera's Azad Essa, while reviewing the film for Independent Online observed that "the elevation of women is still a manifestation of an unfulfilled male dream.

"[141] Strong responses on similar lines from a small section of the Chinese viewers met the film, where, following the release, a fresh debate on feminism began.

[149] The film has received praise from a number of Japanese celebrities, including film critic Takeo Matsuzaki, television personality Tsutomu Sekine, video game developer Hideo Kojima, manga authors Keisuke Itagaki and Noboru Kawasaki, and athletes including Olympic wrestlers Saori Yoshida and Kazuhito Sakae, professional wrestlers Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami, tennis player Shuzo Matsuoka, and weightlifter Hiromi Miyake.

2, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Life, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Wonder Woman and Alien: Covenant.

Khan's comment in November 2015 during the ongoing intolerance debate in India had sparked outrage and backlash from certain sections of right wing extremist groups.

Following the exercise, it was reported that business fell by 60 per cent and that 700 theatres even shut,[252] including a few that deciding not to renew their licences, converted into wedding halls.

The earnings of films Dear Zindagi, Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh and Befikre that were released around this time were significantly affected, and their corresponding producers had handed out limited prints to single-screen theatres, to keep losses at a minimum.

By 2013, China grew to become the world's second largest film market (after the United States), paving the way for Khan's Chinese box office success, with Dhoom 3 (2013), PK, and eventually Dangal.

[262] It was also reported that Chinese audiences could relate to the underlying social theme of Dangal in that it portrayed the success story of sisters in the backdrop of a patriarchal and gender inequal society, much like the conditions inherent in China.

[263] Another factor was that the film filled a "vacuum" created by lack of interest among filmgoers due to "poor quality of domestic films" and China's ban on the "wildly popular" Korea dramas on television and streaming platforms due to South Korea's acceptance of the deployment of the American THAAD missile defence system, in August 2016.

[275] The film's word of mouth was also helped by discussion generated on Chinese social media sites such as WeChat and Sina Weibo, including discussion surrounding Khan's previous work in film and television, as well as a number of prominent Chinese celebrities recommending Dangal to their fans, including stars such as Deng Chao, Wang Baoqiang, Yao Chen, Feng Xiaogang, Lu Han and Fan Bingbing.

[305] It has also had an effect on China–India relations, with Chinese leader and CCP general secretary Xi Jinping saying he enjoyed the film when he met Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

"[307] Several critics have noted that the Academy Award nominated American film King Richard (2021) starring Will Smith has a similar premise and plot to Dangal.