Bollywood Movie Emoji Game: 12 Films Hidden in Emoji

an illustration of a group of friends playing a bollywood game on desi mauj

You want to run an emoji game on movie night, and you need puzzles people can actually solve. Most searches turn up the same three obvious ones, or a pack you have to buy before you can even see it. Here are twelve Bollywood films spelled out entirely in emoji, with the answers, ready to read straight off your phone.

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Ready to play right now? Try Bollywood Charades on Desi Mauj, auto-generate film titles and start in seconds.

Cover the answers if you want to guess, or read the puzzles aloud and let the room shout over each other. When you run out, the film generator picks fresh titles for you to turn into your own emoji.

How does the Bollywood movie emoji game work?

You show a string of emoji that stands for a film title, and the other players guess the movie. One emoji can be a word, a sound, a character, or the whole plot in miniature. The only rule that matters is that the person who set the puzzle stays quiet. Everything else is house rules.

It runs like a written round of dumb charades, except the clue sits on the screen instead of being acted out. That makes it the easiest party game to start cold, because nobody has to stand up.

12 Bollywood movies hidden in emoji

Here are twelve emoji puzzles, each with the film it stands for and a line on why the emoji fit. Read the pictures left to right and say them out loud.

  1. ๐Ÿ’—๐Ÿคต๐Ÿ‘ฐ๐Ÿš‚ for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). The bride, the groom and the train nobody in this house has stopped talking about since 1995.
  2. 3๏ธโƒฃ๐ŸŽ“๐Ÿคช for 3 Idiots (2009). Three engineering students and one very long argument with their own degrees.
  3. ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿด๐Ÿ”ซ for Sholay (1975). The title means embers, and the rest is two friends, a horse and a lot of shooting.
  4. ๐Ÿ‘ง๐Ÿคผ๐Ÿ… for Dangal (2016). A father, two daughters and a wrestling mat that ends in a gold medal.
  5. ๐Ÿ‘ฝ๐Ÿ“ป๐Ÿบ for PK (2014). An alien loses his remote and spends the film asking strangers very good questions.
  6. ๐Ÿš†โžก๏ธ๐ŸŒด for Chennai Express (2013). A train heading south and a man who boarded it more or less by accident.
  7. ๐Ÿ˜„๐Ÿ’”๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ‘งโ€๐Ÿ‘ฆ for Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001). The title says sometimes happy, sometimes sad, and the family delivers both for three hours.
  8. ๐Ÿง โŒ๐Ÿ“ธ for Ghajini (2008). A man who cannot form new memories, so he keeps the plot on his own skin and a wall of photos.
  9. ๐Ÿ‘‘โœˆ๏ธ๐ŸŒ for Queen (2014). A cancelled wedding and a honeymoon taken alone, which turns out to be the best decision she makes.
  10. ๐Ÿš‰๐Ÿ‘ซโค๏ธ for Jab We Met (2007). Two strangers meet on a train and one of them will not stop talking. It works out.
  11. ๐Ÿ•‰๏ธโ˜ฎ๏ธ๐Ÿ•‰๏ธ for Om Shanti Om (2007). Read the emoji aloud and you have said the title. The om, the peace sign, the om again.
  12. ๐Ÿ๏ธ๐Ÿ’ฅ3๏ธโƒฃ for Dhoom 3 (2013). The word means a loud bang, and by the third one there are motorbikes on the side of a building.

Where to get a printed emoji pack

If you want the puzzles printed and ready rather than read off a screen, the printable Bollywood party game bundle on Etsy collects six of these party games in one download. It is a paid printable, not a free tool, so reach for it when you want cards in hand for a bigger group.

How do you make your own emoji movie puzzles?

Start with the literal words in the title, then fill the gaps with the plot. A film called Queen gives you a crown for free, so the rest of the puzzle can hint at the honeymoon. Titles that are full sentences are easier to build than single made-up words, because every word hands you something to point at.

Keep each puzzle to three or four emoji. Any more and the guessers stop reading and start staring.

Frequently asked questions

How do you guess the Bollywood movie from emoji?

Read the emoji as a mix of words and pictures, not as one sentence. A train can be the word train, the sound of a whistle, or the scene the film is known for. Say the parts out loud in order and the title usually falls out. If it does not, the note under each puzzle above tells you what the emoji were standing for.

What makes a good Bollywood emoji quiz for a party?

A good round is eight to twelve puzzles, mixed across decades so every age in the room can get at least a few. The twelve above are built that way, from Sholay in 1975 to Dangal in 2016. Split into teams, one point per correct guess, and let the room argue about the near misses.

Can you play the emoji game with kids?

Yes, if you pick films the kids have actually seen. Recent hits and animated titles work better than a 1970s classic. The mechanic is the same, so a mixed-age room can run one round for everyone by choosing titles the youngest player has a real chance at.

Is there a Bollywood emoji game generator online?

Not for emoji specifically, but the same guessing intent is served by the charades generator, which picks a random Hindi film title for you to act out or turn into emoji on the spot. It removes the part people find hardest, which is thinking of titles under pressure.

How many emoji should one movie puzzle use?

Three or four is the sweet spot. One emoji is usually too vague and six is a paragraph. The best puzzles give one emoji for the literal title and one or two for the plot, so a player who knows the film gets it quickly and a player who does not still has a way in.

Set a timer, open your phone, and start with number three. If you want an endless supply of titles to turn into emoji, pull a random film and race to build the puzzle before anyone guesses it.