Claim: Dangal's (film) principal photography commenced in 2015.

Dangal -LRB- Wrestling competition -RRB- is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language biographical sports drama film directed by Nitesh Tiwari . Produced by Walt Disney Pictures , Aamir Khan Productions and UTV Motion Pictures , it stars Aamir Khan as Mahavir Singh Phogat , an amateur wrestler , who trains his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari to be world-class wrestlers , both of who go on to win medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games . Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra play the older selves of the sisters while Sakshi Tanwar play their mother and Aparshakti Khurana , their cousin .   The development of the film began in early 2013 when Tiwari began writing the screenplay before signing Khan for the film . Set primarily in the Indian State of Haryana , principal photography commenced in September 2015 in the neighbouring Punjab . Satyajit Pande served as the cinematographer and Ballu Saluja as the editor . Pritam scored the film 's background music and for its soundtrack , lyrics for which were written by Amitabh Bhattacharya . Kripa Shankar Bishnoi , a coach with the Indian women 's wrestling team , trained Khan and the cast for the wrestling sequences .   After a North America premiere on 21 December 2016 , Dangal was released worldwide on 23 December opening to positive response with critics ; praise centered on the film 's `` honest '' depiction of a real-life story and Khan 's performance . It was also screened at the Beijing International Film Festival in April 2017 . At the 62nd Filmfare Awards , it won four awards : Best Film , Best Director -LRB- Tiwari -RRB- , Best Actor -LRB- Khan -RRB- and Best Action -LRB- Shyam -RRB- . The film performed equally well commercially and as of 29 May , it stands as the highest-grossing Indian film having collected over 1,700 crore , of which close to 1,000 crore was earned in China , where it has emerged as one of the top 30 highest-grossers of all time .