Let's tri all the angles

BFFs falling for the same girl, kidnap twists, murders, bromances. These 10 three-way love stories play with geometry and our feelings

- Karishma Kuenzang

1 Challengers (2024). It's no surprise that two tennis players would fall for Zendaya. It's no surprise that they'd ruin their lives over her too. What is surprising in Luca Guadagnino's story of competition and conjugation is that the two men have a more exciting bromance with each other than with the woman they love. It tweaks the old dynamic and makes the matches exciting to watch.

2 Manmarziyaan (2018). The old cliché: Married woman chases an old lover, with the help of a sweet, smitten husband. But unlike Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Woh 7 Din (1983), the story's less formulaic. Rumi cheats on Robbie with Vicky. They get caught. Robbie gives her an out.

She picks Vicky, then changes her mind. But the film ends on a cliffhanger. Hope there's a sequel, because we're low-key invested in the newly mature Vicky.

3 Roohi (2021).

BFFs Bhawra and Kattanni kidnap women and marry them off to clients. They kidnap Roohi, only to jointly fall for her. Roohi, meanwhile is damsel by day and kind of a demon by night.

Naturally each man is attracted to a different side of her. This is a triangle with no victims - the happy threesome end up together.

4 Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017).