Durga Puja is here, and Bengali cinema is ready with a line-up of new films for the festive season. From Dev Adhikari and Subhashree Ganguly's much-awaited DeSu7 to Srijit Mukherji's Emperor Vs Sarat Chandra, this year's Bengali releases offer a mix of action, mystery and historical drama. South Indian cinema is also adding to the festive line-up, with Rajinikanth's Jailer 2 among the major releases.
While Bengali cinema takes centre stage during the festive season, Hindi and other South Indian films are also adding to the theatrical line-up. Rajkummar Rao's Prahaar, Yami Gautam's Nayyi Navelli and Vijay Deverakonda's Ranabaali are among the releases offering audiences a mix of courtroom drama, horror comedy and period action.
One of the major Bengali releases of the season, DeSu7 is scheduled for release on October 1 and marks actor Dev Adhikari's directorial debut. The film stars Dev alongside Subhashree Ganguly and Anirban Bhattacharya, following two lovers who reunite after years apart against a political backdrop filled with action, romance and emotional drama.
Bohurupi: The Golden Daku arrives on October 15. Directed by Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee, it is the sequel to the 2024 Bengali hit Bohurupi, continuing the crime-driven story of a man whose faith in the law is shaken after he is wrongly accused and assaulted, with Shiboprosad returning as Bikram Pramanik and Jisshu Sengupta playing the police officer trying to track him down.
Srijit Mukherji's Emperor Vs Sarat Chandra also releases on October 15, taking audiences back to the colonial era as a fictionalised account of Bengali novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's fight against the ban imposed on his novel Pather Dabi in 1927. Tota Roy Chowdhury plays Sarat Chandra, while Abir Chatterjee portrays revolutionary character Sabyasachi Mallick.
The popular Bengali detective Eken Babu returns in The Eken: Kerala-e Kurukshetra on October 15. Directed by Joydeep Mukherjee and starring Anirban Chakrabarti as the eccentric detective, the mystery film follows Eken Babu as he travels to Kerala after the high-profile disappearance of Mihir Sen, played by Kamaleswar Mukherjee.
Among Hindi releases on October 16, Avinash Arun's Prahaar stars Rajkummar Rao as public prosecutor Ujjwal Deorao Nikam in a courtroom drama centring on legal proceedings following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Yami Gautam headlines the horror comedy Nayyi Navelli, directed by Balaji Mohan, which follows a newly married woman whose brother-in-law suspects she is a witch.
In South Indian cinema, Rajinikanth returns as retired jailer Tiger Muthuvel Pandian in the Tamil action sequel Jailer 2, directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, releasing on October 15 to face fresh threats from a criminal network. Meanwhile, Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna star in the Telugu period action drama Ranabaali on October 16, directed by Rahul Sankrityan and set during the Madras famine of 1876–78.
Apart from these regional titles, international films like the survival thriller Whalefall and the live-action video game adaptation Street Fighter are also part of the wider theatrical line-up, giving audiences numerous options during the festive break.