Koyla

Handsome but mute, Shankar is raised by the powerful Raja, to whom he is loyal. But he treats him like a slave. Shankar is also unnecessarily beaten by Raja's brother Brijwa, a violent psychopath. A ruthless and cruel man with a large appetite for young women, Raja kills anyone who dares to defy him.

Raja sees Gauri, a happy innocent villager, and wishes to marry her. However, she wants to see a photo of her future husband first. Aware that she would instantly reject him, he sends her a photo of Shankar. Gauri instantly agrees, and the wedding proceeds.

However, before the ceremony is completed, she discovers that Shankar isn't her groom and faints; Raja orders the priest to continue, though the marriage would be invalid while Gauri is unconscious.When she regains consciousness, she sees Raja trying to consummate their marriage and is shocked upon learning they're married. He imprisons and tortures her.

Gauri tries to commit suicide but Shankar saves her. She accuses him of ruining her life but upon realising his innocence thanks to the son of Raja's doctor who sometimes serves as his interpreter, she is sorry. When Gauri's brother Ashok comes to see her, Raja threatens her to lie to him that she is happy otherwise he will kill Ashok. Gauri does so.

However, Shankar, unable to see Gauri in misery, reveals the truth to Ashok by writing in the dirt as Ashok is about to leave. Raja and Brijwa kill Ashok who returned to rescue Gauri. Moments before dying, he has Shankar promise him to save Gauri; she and Shankar flee Raja's mansion. Enraged, Raja begins a murderous search to find Gauri and Shankar with the help of an old friend of his who is a corrupt DIG.

After a long chase through the jungle and mountains, Shankar uses his survival skills to kill Raja's men. Raja and his men leave due to being disadvantaged. During this, Gauri and Shankar begin to fall in love. Unexpectedly, Raja who is back with reinforcements sees and captures them by shooting Gauri in the arm.

Shankar is brutally beaten by Brijwa, and the corrupt DIG, and Raja slits his throat, then leaves him to die in the mountains; and Gauri is sold to a brothel after Raja discovers she loves Shankar. There, Bindya, Raja's former lover who was disowned by him after she too fell for Shankar once (when he tried to protect her from being raped by Brijwa and was beaten by him when Shankar stopped defending himself in the process for reasons unknown) and was sold to the same brothel, saves Gauri from what had been done to her. To stop her from doing so, Brijwa at his brother's orders, humiliates her in public, before stabbing her with a knife when she tries to do the same to him in order to protect Gauri. Shankar is found and saved by a village boy who brings him to his grandfather (a healer), who operates on his throat while he is still unconscious. The healer, who discovers that Shankar is not mute by birth, is able to repair some of the damaged nerves in Shankar's throat, enabling him to speak.

While recovering, Shankar recalls that when he was a boy, his father discovered diamonds in the coal mine, however, he and his wife were murdered in front of Shankar by two mysterious men; when young Shankar threatened to tell his parents' colleagues what they did, someone came up from behind him and shoved hot coals into his throat, rendering him mute. Raja, who had known Shankar's parents, ordered the police to kill those men, but unknown to everyone, Shankar included, the police led by the DIG only pretended to kill the men while Raja adopted Shankar. Shankar recovers and returns; first, he fights and kills Brijwa and is reunited with Gauri after rescuing her from the same men that killed his parents, and bought Gauri from the brothel, killing one of the men in the process. Simultaneously, while killing him, Shankar discovers that Raja was the person who made him mute and who ordered his parents to be killed so he could steal their wealth. In the meantime, he reunites with Raja's doctor and son who believed him dead.

With the help of Gauri and the doctor's son, he kills Raja's other henchman and then reveals Raja's crimes to his coal miners. Gauri arrives with her uncle and aunt, forcing them to admit their involvement in making her marry Raja. Raja's doctor and his son turn against him, revealing that he not only deceived Gauri, but is also responsible for numerous killings and rapes. They order everyone to throw rocks at him and his men. Raja manages to shoot a few of the workers and his doctor in the arm. In the chaos, the DIG scares everyone away by throwing grenades but is killed by Shankar, who then chases and corners Raja, who begs for his life. He tries to give Shankar reasons to spare his life, pointing out that he adopted him and saved his life, however, Shankar disregards this by countering that Raja adopted him to make him a slave. After dodging a pickaxe thrown at him by Raja, he kills him by spilling oil and coal around Raja and setting him on fire with a burning rock. Shankar and Gauri embrace each other, finally at peace.

• Shah Rukh Khan as Shankar Hariya Thakur
• Madhuri Dixit as Gauri Singh
• Amrish Puri as Raja Choudhury
• Ranjeet as Dilawar Bapat
• Salim Ghouse as Brijwa Choudhury
• Deepshikha Nagpal as Bindiya Singh
• Jack Gaud as Ranbir Chauhan
• Johnny Lever as Dev Narayan/Chhote
• Mohnish Bahl as Ashok Singh
• Ashok Saraf as Ved "Vedji" Narayan
• Himani Shivpuri as Chanda Bai
• Suresh Chatwal as Sanjay Singh
• Shubha Khote as Sumitra Singh
• Rammohan Sharma as Old man
• Kunika as Rasili
• Vikas Anand as Haria
• Pradeep Rawat as Police Commissioner
• Dev Malhotra as Minor murdered by Raja
• Razak Khan as Impotent party guest

"Tanhai Tanhai" and "Dekha Tujhe To" became very popular upon release. The theme song was credited from the movie Conquest of Paradise composed by Vangelis. "Sanson Ki Mala Pe" was based on a bhajan by Mirabai.

Koyla grossed ₹25.91 crore (US$3.2 million) in India and $600,000 (₹2.14 crore) in other countries, for a worldwide total of ₹28.05 crore (US$3.5 million), against its ₹12 crore (US$1.5 million) budget. It had a worldwide opening weekend of ₹5.39 crore (US$680,000), and grossed ₹9.60 crore (US$1.2 million) in its first week.[1] It is the 9th-highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1997 worldwide.[5][6]

The film after release, saw a home media launch on VHS, VCD and DVD over the next ten years of its release. There has not been a Blu-ray Disc, or subsequent release since then.

Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role - Amrish Puri - Nominated

• Koyla at IMDb