Anurag Kashyap is seen as a controversial director of Bollywood due to the themes of his films and his outspoken nature. He gave us many great films like ‘Black Friday’, ‘No Smoking’, ‘Dev D’, ‘Gulaal’, ‘Manmarziyaan’ and ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’.
However, his directorial debut film got into trouble 22 years back and has not been released to date. Now the clouds of its release date seem to be clearing. Starring Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Srivastava, Vijay Maurya, Joy Fernandes and Tejaswini Kolhapure, the film will be released in 2025.
The film will be released after 22 years
‘Paanch’ is largely inspired by the Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders in Pune in 1976-77. During that time, the censor board’s scissors were used on the film and the CBFC asked to remove many scenes from the film. The board had objected to the scenes of violence and the depiction of drug abuse. Anurag worked very hard but the film’s release could not be approved. Apart from theatres, the film was also not allowed to be released digitally.
But the film was screened at many international film festivals in the past years. It received a lot of praise from those who saw it. On one hand, while the film could not be released in theatres, its pirated versions are available on many sites. Now after 22 years, the film is going to get an official release. Producer Titu Sharma opened up about its release.
“‘Paanch’ will definitely be released in theatres next year. I am planning to release it in the next 6 months. The negatives of the film are being restored. As soon as they are ready, we will release the film,” Sharma said.
It is significant to note that not only ‘Paanch’, Anurag Kashyap’s second directorial ‘Black Friday’ also did not get a release date for a long time. It was finally released in the year 2007.