Ghamasaan Premieres on ZEE5 as Tigmanshu Dhulia Returns to the Dacoit Drama

Tigmanshu Dhulia’s crime thriller Ghamasaan premiered on ZEE5 on September 11, 2026, marking the director’s return to the dacoit genre after Paan Singh Tomar.

The film stars Arshad Warsi as the dreaded dacoit Maharaj and Pratik Gandhi as IPS officer Aditya Singh, the Special Task Force officer tasked with bringing him down.

Ghamasaan is set against the rugged backdrop of Bundelkhand and follows a cat-and-mouse chase that expands into a larger battle involving political corruption and power struggles.

The film was originally planned for a theatrical release in 2024 but was delayed. It was ultimately released on the streaming platform instead.

Dhulia addressed the shift in an interview with NDTV. ‘That was not in my hands,’ he said. ‘I am just a technician. I am the writer-director of the film, not the producer.’

The director also spoke about the film’s visual approach. ‘We shot it on anamorphic lenses, the way Western films are often made,’ Dhulia told NDTV. ‘The location itself is a major character in the film.’

Ghamasaan was filmed on location across Dholpur, Bundelkhand and Chitrakoot. The production used real locations rather than studio sets.

Dhulia explained the reasoning behind the title in the same NDTV interview. ‘Ghamasaan is quite a generic title, and there is nothing extraordinary about it, but it suits the film perfectly,’ he said.

The film’s cast includes Rajpal Yadav and Ishita Dutta in pivotal roles. Ishita Dutta plays Aparna Singh, Aditya’s wife, whose kidnapping by the dacoits becomes a key plot point.

Arshad Warsi described his character in a statement released during the trailer launch. ‘Maharaj is a very exciting character because he allowed me to explore a completely different side of myself as an actor,’ Warsi said.

‘Playing a negative character with so much darkness, unpredictability and rawness was challenging, but also something I genuinely enjoyed.’

Pratik Gandhi also commented on his role in the same statement. ‘What drew me to Ghamasaan was the passion and intensity that drive Aditya,’ Gandhi said.

‘He is courageous, fearless and unwavering in his mission to bring Maharaj to justice. But as he goes deeper into the pursuit, he discovers that he isn’t fighting just one individual—he is fighting a well-designed system.’

The film had its trailer unveiled on August 26, 2026. ZEE5, Jio Studios and Golden Ratio Films produced the project.

Ghamasaan had a festival run before its digital premiere. It was screened at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, the Cinevesture International Film Festival and the Chicago South Asian Film Festival.

Dhulia revealed that Shah Rukh Khan was his first choice for the role eventually played by Pratik Gandhi. The director told the Indian Express that Khan declined, saying he does not do realistic films.

Arshad Warsi, who was present during the conversation, said he understood Khan’s decision. ‘That poor guy, if he does anything realistic then I will have a problem,’ Warsi said.

Dhulia also shared a chilling memory from the shoot in his NDTV interview. He recalled walking through a forest during a location scout when he noticed a blue nylon thread hanging from a wall with tattered clothes and plastic slippers below.

‘It immediately looked as though someone had been hanged there and that wildlife had taken care of the rest,’ Dhulia said. ‘We had police personnel with us for security, so I asked one of them, What is this? He casually replied, This happens all the time here. Someone must have died.’

The film runs for 2 hours and 30 minutes. It is rated 2.5 out of 5 by News18 and 2.5 out of 5 by Hindustan Times.

News18’s review noted that Arshad Warsi does not appear for the first 11 minutes of the film, with the opening instead establishing the fear surrounding his character through secondary characters.

The Hindustan Times review stated that the film benefits from Dhulia’s familiarity with the world it inhabits but does not always find anything new to say about it.

Filmfare’s review praised the film’s visual quality, noting that it was shot on anamorphic lenses and filmed almost entirely on location. The review described the film as closer to a Hindi heartland Western.

The Hindu’s review observed that Warsi and Gandhi never shot together and their characters do not meet in the film. The review called this an unusual choice for a film built around a cat-and-mouse pursuit.

Dhulia spoke about the film’s place in his career in an interview with Deccan Chronicle. ‘The setting of the film inspired me, the terrain of Bundelkhand,’ he said.

‘After research we stitched in detailing and that made an otherwise traditional story about dacoits and cops very interesting.’

Ghamasaan is now streaming on ZEE5. The film is available in Hindi with a runtime of 150 minutes.