Set in Delhi, the plot centres on a couple's struggle to get their daughter admitted to a prestigious English-medium school in order to rise in society.

Made on a production budget of ₹14 crore, Hindi Medium was released on 19 May 2017, and received a generally positive reception from the critics, with particular praise for the cast performances.

Raj Batra is a successful boutique owner who lives in the Old Delhi neighbourhood of Chandni Chowk with his wife Meeta and his 5-year-old daughter, Pia.

The couple wants Pia to be admitted to a prestigious English-medium school in Delhi as they feel that this will enable her to become a part of elite society.

A consultant, Saumya, despite her misgivings about them, tutors them in the answers to be given in the admission interview, but their limited knowledge of English means Pia's application is rejected.

After a scam reveals that rich parents have been misusing the quota to admit their children, they move to Bharat Nagar, a slum area, for a month and pretend to be poor.

Raj and Meeta make a donation to the Bharat Nagar Government School, where Mohan studies, to renovate it and get new books.

Raj gatecrashes the Annual Day function, gives a speech about English in India and education rights, and leaves, with no one clapping for him, except Meeta.

Credits adapted from Bollywood Hungama:[4] Made on a production budget of ₹14 crore, Hindi Medium was produced by Vijan of Maddock Films and Bhushan Kumar of T-Series.

[6] The production crew consisted primarily of people Chaudhary had worked with on Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Shaadi Ke Side Effects, with the exception of production designer Mustafa Stationwala—they are editor A. Sreekar Prasad; dialogue writer Amitosh Nagpal; and cinematographer Laxman Utekar.

Khan commented that he had accepted the role as it tackled the realistic subject of the challenges of obtaining a good education in India.

In the same interview with Pakistani newspaper Dawn, she commented that her experience wasn't affected by the nationalist far-right political party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's hostility towards Pakistan at the time.

[31] Hindi Medium received a generally positive reception from critics, with particular praise for Khan's and Qamar's performances.

[32] Rohit Bhatnagar of Deccan Chronicle called the film a "masterpiece" and praised Khan's and Qamar's acting.

[37] Smrity Sharma of India.com rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, and wrote: "Decent story, humour, a few heart tugging moments and effortless performances by Irrfan Khan, Saba Qamar and Deepak Dobriyal make the movie watchable.

"[38] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express giving 2 out of 5 stars, praised Khan's acting however felt that the writing was "flat", and that some of the supporting characters were "more caricature than real".

[40] A reviewer for Time Out gave it 4 out of 5 stars: "With all its merits, though, the film stumbles near the end with its overly sentimental conclusion."

[42] Sadaf Siddique of Dawn observed: "Chaudhary gets full marks for novelty, he fails to adequately flesh his ideas out".

[43] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave 2.5 stars out of 5, commenting "Despite its shortcomings, the film is never unwatchable and benefits enormously from a winning performance by Irrfan Khan who makes his every moment on screen count.

From his hilarious wooing of a mother-daughter pair of potential customers at his shop in the film's first half to his earnest amends on discovering his conscience late into the final act, he has you eating out of his palm.

[48] By 16 April 2018, Hindi Medium had crossed the ₹3 billion (US$43.87 million) mark worldwide, becoming one of the top 20 highest-grossing Indian films at the time.

[47] Hindi Medium surpassed Dangal (2016) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) to have the second highest opening day for an Indian film in China, behind only Secret Superstar (2018).

The entire unit of Hindi Medium, including Irrfan and Saba, who look cool as a couple on-screen, should be repeated in a film.

"[62] On 30 March 2019, it was announced that Kareena Kapoor has been added to the cast of the sequel to play the role of a police officer and filming will start from April.