Maachis (transl. Matchsticks) is a 1996 Indian period political thriller film written and directed by Gulzar and produced by R. V. Pandit. It stars Chandrachur Singh, Om Puri, Tabu, and Jimmy Sheirgill. The film portrays the circumstances surrounding the rise of the Sikh insurgency in Punjab in the 1980s. The music of the film was composed by Vishal Bhardwaj, with lyrics penned by Gulzar. It was also the Hindi film debut of KK as a playback singer.

Gulzar is an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this era. He started his career with music director S.D. Burman as a lyricist in the 1963 film Bandini and worked with many music directors including R. D. Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Vishal Bhardwaj and A. R. Rahman. Gulzar also writes poetry, dialogues and scripts. He directed films such as Aandhi and Mausam during the 1970s and the TV series Mirza Ghalib in the 1980s. He also directed Kirdaar in 1993.