In July 2018, Indian state Odisha wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to declare field hockey as the national sport of India.

[1] The state government of Odisha has been supporting India's national field hockey team from February 2018 till next five years.

[5] India went on to win their third straight title at the 1936 Olympics, this time captained by legendary player Dhyan Chand himself.

[5] The Indian hockey team that won three successive Olympic titles is often regarded as one of the greatest ever to play the sport.

[9] India went on to win two further gold medals in 1952 and 1956, preserving its record as the most successful and dominant team at that time in the Olympics.

In 1952 Olympics quarter-finals India won against Austria 4–0, Great Britain 3–1 in semi-final and defeated Netherlands 6–1 in the final.

[10] The match is famous for the five-goal magical performance of Balbir Singh Sr., which is an Olympic record that still stands today.

In the final India faced Pakistan and won the match 1–0, which was the beginning of the biggest rivalry in field hockey.

India returned strongly at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics by registering wins against Hong Kong, Belgium, Netherlands, Malaysia and Canada and drawing with Spain and Germany.

[15] At the 1972 Olympics also the results were same as India started brightly by defeating Great Britain, Australia, Kenya, New Zealand and Mexico but drew with Netherlands and Poland.

[16] India won the bronze medal at the 1971 World Cup by virtue of a win over Kenya in the third-place playoffs.

[17] At the 1973 World Cup India defeated Pakistan in semi-finals, but lost to Netherlands in the final in penalty shoot-out after the match ended in a 2–2 draw.

[18] But at the 1975 World Cup India defeated Malaysia in the semi-final before beating arch-rivals Pakistan in the final to claim their first title.

[19] In the 1976 Olympics astro-turf hockey pitch was introduced, India struggled to maintain their dominance like they did on grass fields and for the first time ever returned home empty handed.

The 1980 Olympics was held in Moscow, India started their campaign with an 18–0 win over Tanzania followed by a 2–2 draw with both Poland and Spain respectively.

India later won the gold medal for a record eighth time by defeating Spain in the final by the score of 4–3.

[20] After the 1980 Olympics success India's performance declined and the following decades resulted in a lot of ups and downs for the national team.

[28] India started the new millennium by winning the inaugural Hockey Champions Challenge by defeating South Africa in the final.

The 2018 Asian Games proved little disappointing as India was the defending champions as well as the favorites to win but was surprised by Malaysia in semi-final.

[46] The team returned strongly by winning 2018 Asian Champions Trophy and collecting a gold medal at the 2018–19 Men's Hockey Series.

The team also won the Gold medal at the inaugural 1982 Asian Games held in New Delhi, defeating Korea in the finals.

Team members were referred to as the "assi (Jasjeet) jaisi koi nahi" or the "Golden Girls of Hockey," after the 2004 win.

[52] The team earned a 3rd-place finish at the 2013 Women's Hockey Asia Cup at Kuala Lumpur defeating China in a shootout.

[54] During the summer of 2015, the team hosted the Round 2 of the 2014–15 Women's FIH Hockey World League and finished on top to qualify for the next stage.

At the World League Semi-finals held in Antwerp the team finished in the fifth place beating higher ranked Japan in classification match.

[63] After hearing the storyline, Kaushik suggested that Sahni meet hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi (who faced accusations of throwing the match against Pakistan during the 1982 Asian Games).

[68] In response to the fact that the media equated Kabir Khan with Negi, Sahni said that "Our script was written a year and a half back.

Following their performance at the Olympics, the team went to win bronze medals at the 2022 Asia Cup and the Commonwealth Games and a third-place finish in the 2021–22 Pro League.

[78] The panel was headed by Aslam Sher Khan, a former MP and former hockey captain and includes Ashok Kumar, Ajit Pal Singh, Zafar Iqbal and Dhanraj Pillay.

[79][80] On 30 April 2008, in an interview with India Today, Khan indicated the impact of the 2007 film about the National Women's Hockey Team, Chak De!