Three of Hindi cinema’s most respected voices have put their weight behind a small mountain story. Vishal Bhardwaj, Manoj Bajpayee and Ayushmann Khurrana have each praised the trailer of Vinod Kapri’s Pyre, ahead of the film’s theatrical release on October 30, 2026 in Hindi and Malayalam.
The endorsements
Manoj Bajpayee shared the trailer on X and told his followers, “A must watch for all of you!” Vishal Bhardwaj posted on Instagram Stories that he is “waiting to see this beautiful film.” Ayushmann Khurrana added, “Whatta beautiful trailer. My best wishes to the team.”
For a film without a star cast, these public reactions matter. They give the film borrowed credibility and a wider reach just as it enters the hardest stretch of its life: the theatrical window. Hindi cinema’s small-scale films often live or die on such endorsements. A trailer shared by a Manoj Bajpayee or a Vishal Bhardwaj reaches audiences paid promotion cannot, and it signals that this is not a routine release.
A story about the ones left behind
Set in the Kumaon region of the Uttarakhand Himalayas, Pyre follows an elderly couple whose lives revolve around shared memories and the long wait for children who have left the village in search of better opportunities. Through their days, the film examines love, loneliness, ageing and companionship, with migration’s toll on older people at its centre.
The leads are themselves from that world: Padam Singh Kapri, 80, and Heera Devi, 70, are residents of Uttarakhand who had no acting experience before the film. The director is National Award-winning filmmaker Vinod Kapri; the producers are Vinod Kapri, Suresh Joshi and Arindra Rai Chaudhuri.
Festival goodwill, then the box office
The film does not arrive untested. It has already been recognized at international film festivals, and has drawn appreciation from Gulzar, Vivek Agnihotri and Siddharth Kak, who have watched it. The recognition means the film has already cleared a quality bar among peers; what remains is the commercial bar.
- Director: National Award-winner Vinod Kapri
- Release: October 30, 2026, in Hindi and Malayalam
- Leads: Padam Singh Kapri, 80, and Heera Devi, 70, both first-time actors
- Earlier praise: Gulzar, Vivek Agnihotri and Siddharth Kak
The latest endorsements add to the attention around the film, but the real test is whether audiences who do not know these names will buy a ticket to a story with no familiar faces. That, more than any Instagram Story, will decide Pyre‘s place in the record.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
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