Anurag Kashyap making a crime thriller is always worth paying attention to. The man behind Gangs of Wasseypur, Ugly, and Black Friday doesn’t make comfortable films — he makes films that sit with you long after you’ve left the theatre, usually because they’ve asked you questions you weren’t quite ready for. Bandar looks very much like another one of those.
What’s made this one particularly buzzy before release is the pairing with Bobby Deol — and the fact that the teaser shows a version of him that a lot of people weren’t expecting. Anurag Kashyap returns with a gritty psychological crime drama exploring fame, power, consent, and media scrutiny. Here’s everything about Bobby Deol, and Anurag Kashyap’s crime thriller, cast, plot, and early buzz.
Bandar Movie Release Date
Bandar is scheduled for a worldwide theatrical release on May 22, 2026. There were earlier reports floating around suggesting a June 5 date, but the promotional material and recent updates have been pointing consistently toward May.
The makers are going the theatrical route rather than releasing directly to streaming, and no OTT platform details have been announced yet. The film had its first public outing at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, where it screened under the Special Presentations category and drew attention for its performances and the emotional intensity of its storytelling.
What Is Bandar Movie About?
Bandar — also known internationally as Monkey in a Cage — is a dark crime thriller that draws from real-life events. At its center is Sameer Mehra, an aging television star whose best days feel increasingly far behind him. He’s in a new relationship with a younger woman named Khushi and doing what he can to keep his public image intact.
Things unravel when his former girlfriend Gayatri comes back into his life. After he cuts off contact with her, she accuses him of rape — and from that point, everything falls apart. What follows is a story that plays out in courtrooms, in the media, and in the private wreckage of broken relationships and shifting loyalties.
What the film seems deliberately uninterested in doing is giving easy answers. The narrative appears built around moral complexity rather than clear verdicts, which is very much in keeping with how Kashyap tends to work.
Bobby Deol’s Intense Transformation
The teaser makes one thing immediately clear — this is not the Bobby Deol of his earlier commercial films. Long hair, a worn and troubled look, and a performance that seems to carry genuine psychological weight. It’s a significant departure, and it’s generated real conversation online.
After Animal reminded audiences what Bobby Deol could do when given the right material, Bandar looks like it’s pushing him somewhere even more demanding. He’s playing a deeply flawed man navigating public destruction and personal collapse simultaneously — and the early glimpses suggest he’s risen to it.
Bandar Cast and Characters
The supporting cast around Bobby Deol is strong. Sanya Malhotra plays Sameer’s sister and is expected to carry a significant emotional arc within the story. Saba Azad appears as Khushi, the younger woman at the center of his personal life. Sapna Pabbi plays Gayatri, whose accusation sets the entire story in motion.
Indrajith Sukumaran, Raj B. Shetty, and Jitendra Joshi are also part of the cast in important roles, alongside Riddhi Sen, Joju George, Nagesh Bhosle, Jaimini Pathak, Santosh Juvekar, Sukant Goel, and Ankush Gedam.
Anurag Kashyap Returns to His Gritty Style
For fans of Kashyap’s earlier work, Bandar feels like a homecoming. The film appears to carry all the hallmarks of his signature style — morally ambiguous characters, social commentary woven into the crime narrative, uncomfortable emotional truths, and a refusal to simplify what is genuinely complicated.
The themes the film is engaging with — media trials, cancel culture, consent, power imbalance, and the gap between public perception and private reality — are very much part of current conversations. But based on what’s been shared so far, Kashyap isn’t approaching these subjects with a predetermined conclusion in mind. He seems more interested in making audiences sit uncomfortably with the complexity than in handing them a tidy resolution.
Crew Behind Bandar
Bandar is directed by Anurag Kashyap and produced by Nikhil Dwivedi through Saffron Magicworks in association with Zee Studios. The screenplay is written by Sudip Sharma and Abhishek Banerjee — both known for crafting layered, grounded narratives — which has raised expectations for the writing considerably.
Cinematography is handled by Saiyed Shaaz Rizvi, with editing by veteran Aarti Bajaj. Music details haven’t been released yet.
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Why Bandar Is Already Creating Buzz
The combination of Bobby Deol and Anurag Kashyap is the starting point for most of the excitement. Add a story that touches on some of the more charged conversations in public discourse right now, a teaser that sets a genuinely dark and unsettling tone, and a festival premiere that drew positive attention — and there’s enough here to keep the curiosity building right up to release.
A Dark and Uncomfortable Story Awaits Audiences
Bandar isn’t being sold as a straightforward thriller and it doesn’t seem to want to be. It’s a film about a man whose life is publicly dismantled, and it’s interested in exploring every uncomfortable layer of that — the courtroom, the headlines, the personal fallout, and the question of what truth actually means when everyone has already made up their mind.
For viewers who enjoy cinema that challenges rather than comforts, Bandar is shaping up to be one of the more significant Hindi film releases of 2026.