8 films to book for Durga Puja 2026: DeSu7, Jailer 2 and more

Durga Puja 2026 is shaping up as a packed theatrical week. Eight major films—four Bengali titles, two Hindi releases and two big South Indian entries—are arriving between October 1 and October 16, offering everything from courtroom drama and period action to horror comedy and detective mystery.

For Hindi film fans, the festive window is a chance to sample star-driven films outside the usual Bollywood calendar. But the bigger story is Bengali cinema, which leads the line-up with four releases timed to the region’s biggest festival.

The Bengali lead pack

DeSu7 opens first on October 1. It marks Dev Adhikari’s directorial debut and pairs him with Subhashree Ganguly and Anirban Bhattacharya in a love story set against a political backdrop.

On October 15, three titles land together. Bohurupi: The Golden Daku, directed by Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee, continues the crime saga of Bikram Pramanik with Jisshu Sengupta as the officer on his trail. Emperor Vs Sarat Chandra is Srijit Mukherji’s fictionalised account of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s fight against the 1927 ban on Pather Dabi, starring Tota Roy Chowdhury and Abir Chatterjee. The Eken: Kerala-e Kurukshetra sends Anirban Chakrabarti’s detective to Kerala for a missing-person case that turns stranger.

Hindi and South Indian counter-programming

October 16 brings the Hindi releases. Prahaar, directed by Avinash Arun, casts Rajkummar Rao as public prosecutor Ujjwal Deorao Nikam in the courtroom drama around the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Nayyi Navelli gives Yami Gautam a horror-comedy set in a Meerut household, where her brother-in-law suspects she is a witch.

The same day, Telugu period action film Ranabaali stars Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna in a story set during the Madras famine of 1876–78. A day earlier, on October 15, Rajinikanth returns in Jailer 2, the sequel to the 2023 action blockbuster, directed by Nelson Dilipkumar.

How to plan your Puja watchlist

The festive window rewards a little planning. Here’s a quick way to choose:

• For action and star power: Jailer 2 on October 15, then Ranabaali on October 16.
• For a courtroom-history fix: Prahaar on October 16.
• For Bengali cinema at its most festive: DeSu7 first, then the October 15 trio.
• For a lighter, family-friendly detour: Nayyi Navelli.

International releases such as Whalefall and Street Fighter are also in the wider mix, so screens will be crowded across languages.

If you can only commit to a few, follow the stars you already love—but the Bengali titles are the clearest expression of the season itself.

Source: India Today