Karigar-e-Taj (Dice Toy Labs). Another one for the history junkies. Here, you get to build the Taj Mahal. Set in 1631, this game turns you into a karigar competing for Shah Jahan’s approval by managing workers, resources and a constantly shifting bazaar. You’re hauling marble, timing elephant power moves and sabotaging rivals by changing the market at exactly the wrong moment for them. It’s a front-row seat to the chaos behind one of history’s most perfect monuments, plus you get to keep your hands. Win-win.
Bollywood Battle – The Ultimate Bollywood Guessing Game (Gouda Games). The game comes with 200 trivia cards, each with an iconic dialogue, earworm lyrics or visual clues. Your job is to guess the movie. There’s a picture of a throat labelled ‘epiglottis’. Bollywood die-hards, you know the answer: My Name Is Khan. And the dialogue “Bachpan se mujhe shaadi karne ka bohot shauk hai, by God”? That’s Geet from Jab We Met, obviously. The game gives you a chance to flex your filmi knowledge, that’s otherwise completely useless.
Chai Garam (Dice Toy Labs). Every Indian has, at some point, contemplated the economics of running a chai tapri. This game turns that universal daydream into a test of strategy and timing. You run a stall at a mela, juggling tea leaves, milk, sugar and spices, while managing burners, saucepans and impatient customers. Celebs drop by, critics complicate things. Can you rise above it all to become the ultimate ‘Chaiwalla’ or will you give up your tapri dreams forever?
Desi Feud (Desi Board Games). This Indian version of Family Feud features very desi questions, such as “What goes into Maggi?” or “Which Bollywood actor is known for action films?” The creators have surveyed over a thousand Indians to come up with the top six answers. Can your guesses match the national hive mind? The game — which can be played in teams or solo — is loud, competitive and deeply validating when your answer is number one on the board.
Andaaz Apna Apna (Desi Board Games). The game is part Taboo, part charades. Players fling one-word clues from all sides, but if two people say the same thing (“egg” for “omelette”), it’s cancelled. Which means you’re suddenly reaching for weirder, more desperate prompts, such as “bread”, “hard-boiled”, even a random “Teja”. It gets worse if you switch to the Secret Roles mode, where players are split into Nice and Naughty, with some helping you and others sabotaging you. The goal is to land the word before logic taps out completely.
Bollywood Rummy (Desi Board Games). The game combines Rummy with our wildest filmmaking fantasies. The players collect cards with a celeb, a plot and a location and pitch a movie using all three. It’s easy when you’ve got Shah Rukh Khan, romance and Switzerland. Or Ayushmann Khurrana, a social issue, and small-town India. But if you’re stuck with MS Dhoni, aliens and a wedding venue, get ready to confidently spout absolute nonsense. The goal is to make at least four films, or rack up the most stars. Can you bluff your way to a blockbuster hit?
Raja Mantri Chor Sipahi (Desi Board Games). This is your childhood game, upgraded with lies, gold coins and consequences. Everyone holds secret character cards, and you can confidently claim to be anyone — Raja to grab gold, Chor to steal or Sipahi to investigate. But if you’re caught bluffing, you’ve got to pay up. No one gets eliminated, everyone stays scheming, and the game ends when someone hoards enough gold to win. You get to be nostalgic, sneaky and gloriously cutthroat, all in under 30 minutes.
Yudhbhoomi (Dice Toy Labs). If you like your board games that are heavy on scheming and light on mercy, this one delivers. Yudhbhoomi plays out like a war map where every move is calculated. You’re moving infantry, cavalry, even elephant units across forts and choke points, and rerolling the dice up to three times to see how far you can push your luck. The goal is to build an army, capture treasures or hold territories against other players. Strategic and tense, this one’s for history and combat nerds.
Go Goa (Kheo Games). Is your Goa plan permanently stuck in the group chat? This one hits close. The game lets you map out a 12-day holiday across beaches, forts, and waterfalls. You chart your route while hoping the dice finally gets you to Anjuna or Dudhsagar. Each roll controls your direction, distance and turns, so one bad number can derail everything — just like that one friend who always ruins your plans. Think of it as manifesting a Goa trip on a board. At least here, you actually make it.
Panchayat (Kheo Games). Perfect for lazy Sundays, this absorbing tile game is about coaxing a village into existence, one careful placement at a time. You draft homes, temples, wells, flour mills and post offices, then puzzle over where they fit best. Early placements slowly gain value as you add to them. It’s thoughtful, gently competitive and deeply nostalgic. By the end, you’ve built a thriving village and have the Malgudi Days tana-na-nana-nana playing in your head on loop.
From HT Brunch, March 28, 2026
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