Anurag Kashyap’s unreleased film Paanch (2003) will be released in theatres in 2025, according to a report in Bollywood Hungama. Producer Tutu Sharma confirmed that the film is currently being restored and will be released in the next 6 months.
Originally made in the early 2000s, Paanch was Anurag’s debut film, which was not passed by the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) due to its darker themes. It tells the story of a kidnapping gone wrong and is loosely inspired by serial murders that happened in Pune in 1976–77. The film remained unreleased and over the years got re-surfaced on the internet. It was also screened at some film festivals.
Tutu said that as the movie was banned earlier, its film negatives have deteriorated. He also said that its issues with the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) have been resolved, but there were some other problems that they were grappling with due to which the film was just ‘lying in the cans’.
It stars Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Srivastava, Vijay Maurya, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Sharat Saxena, Vijay Raaz and Abhinav Kashyap in pivotal roles. It features music by Vishal Bhardwaj and lyrics by Abbas Tyrewala.