Manoj Bajpayee and Neeraj Pandey are back in the crime-thriller space with Gajab Raat, a Netflix film that will premiere on October 23. The Thursday announcement confirms the date and a new identity: the project was introduced as Ghooskhor Pandat during a Netflix slate reveal, then renamed after objections from some groups over an alleged insult to a community.
One night, one investigation
Created by Neeraj Pandey and directed by Ritesh Shah in his directorial debut, the film unfolds over a single night. Manoj Bajpayee plays a police officer investigating a murder, with Saqib Saleem, Akshay Oberoi, Divya Dutta, Kiku Sharda and Nushrratt Bharuccha in the supporting cast.
The makers describe the film as a thriller built on divided loyalties and the cost of each choice. The trailer points to a case with several stakeholders, and Shah said the compressed timeline was used to keep raising the stakes as events unfold.
“Gajab Raat is a thriller where the choices that people make push them to a point where there are no easy answers.” — Neeraj Pandey
A reunion with a procedural past
This is the third Bajpayee-Pandey collaboration after Special 26 (2013) and Aiyaary (2018). Those films leaned into institutional compromise, moral ambiguity and the machinery of investigation, and Gajab Raat appears to draw on a similar register. Bajpayee said he has long been drawn to “characters who are not easy to define,” and that the film sits within an exciting Netflix journey.
The pairing is the draw: in Special 26 and Aiyaary, the leads were not simple heroes, and the tension came from systems as much as individuals. Compressing that worldview into one night gives Gajab Raat a tighter frame, and gives Bajpayee another role built on accountability rather than easy heroism.
- Premieres on Netflix on October 23.
- Earlier title: Ghooskhor Pandat, changed after objections.
- Directed by Ritesh Shah; created by Neeraj Pandey.
- Manoj Bajpayee leads as a cop investigating a murder.
What the retitle signals
The switch from Ghooskhor Pandat to Gajab Raat moves the title’s emphasis from a character label to the night in which the story happens. That is a familiar pressure point in Hindi cinema, where a name can carry community or cultural resonances long before a single frame is watched. The makers have not detailed the objections publicly; only the change has been announced.
For Netflix, the film extends a slate of Hindi crime stories built around known faces and tight genre premises. For Bajpayee, it continues a run of morally layered roles. The premiere will test whether the one-night structure and the new title keep attention on the film itself rather than the dispute that preceded it.
Source: The Hindu
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