Manoj Bajpayee’s Netflix Thriller Renamed Gajab Raat for Oct 23

Manoj Bajpayee’s next Netflix film has a new name, and fans now have a date to circle. The crime thriller previously announced as Ghooskhor Pandat will arrive on Netflix as Gajab Raat on October 23.

A one-night story with no easy choices

Directed by Ritesh Shah and produced by Neeraj Pandey’s banner Friday Storytellers, the story centres on a police officer who must weigh his own interests against what he believes is right. Netflix said in a press release on Thursday that this single choice triggers a chain of events through one night.

For Bajpayee, the appeal is the moral tightrope. He said in a statement that he is drawn to characters who are “not easy to define,” and that the film let him step into a world “filled with suspense, moral dilemmas and questions of accountability.” As the night unfolds, he added, the characters’ motivations slowly come into focus.

The ensemble includes Saqib Saleem, Shraddha Das, Akshay Oberoi, Divya Dutta, Kiku Sharda and Nushrratt Bharuccha.

Why the title changed

Netflix first revealed the project in February under the title Ghooskhor Pandat. The name drew immediate criticism online, with users, politicians and organisations rejecting it as casteist and offensive.

• February 2026: announced as Ghooskhor Pandat, drawing sharp reactions.
• Legal heat: FIRs were registered, and the National Human Rights Commission sent a notice to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
• Supreme Court: the makers told the court the title would be changed.
• October 23: the renamed film premieres on Netflix.

The new title gives the project a cleaner public identity before its debut.

A reunion nearly a decade in the making

Gajab Raat brings Bajpayee and Neeraj Pandey back together after nearly a decade. It also extends Pandey’s Netflix relationship, built through the Khakee franchise, Sikandar Ka Muqaddar and the recently released show Taskaree. Bajpayee’s own streaming credits include the 2025 film Inspector Zende.

Pandey described the film as a thriller where the choices people make lead to a point with no easy answers. The tension, he said, comes as much from those moral dilemmas as from the events packed into one night. Shah, who has written Kahaani, Pink, Airlift and Raid, said the single-night structure let the team keep building urgency and raising the stakes.

What the reset signals

For content teams, the sequence is a reminder that a title is often the first public promise a project makes. When that promise offends, the fastest path back to the audience is a clear change, a firm date, and a team that keeps the conversation on the work rather than the controversy. Gajab Raat now has the first two, and the cast and crew are already doing the third.

For everyone else, the mystery begins on Netflix on October 23.

Source: Hindustan Times

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#Bollywood#crime thriller#Gajab Raat#Manoj Bajpayee#Neeraj Pandey#Netflix india#OTT#Title Change