‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’, ‘Jailer 2’, ‘Verity’: The Biggest Theatrical Releases Of October 2026
From ‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’ to ‘Jailer 2’ and ‘Verity’, check out the movies arriving in theatres in October 2026.
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October 2026 is making a convincing case for keeping the cinema membership active. Vijay Salgaonkar returns on the one date he could never forget, Rajinikanth slips back into the life of a retired jailer, and Vijay Deverakonda heads into a rebellion set against colonial rule. Then there is Tom Cruise trying to save the world from a disaster he may have caused, a new Street Fighter, and a Durga Puja rush of Bengali releases. Between mysteries, family dramas, historical spectacles and some very peculiar horror, the month has plenty more going on than its three headline attractions.
ALSO READ | October 2, Pav Bhaji And Vijay’s Perfect Alibi: Everything To Know About ‘Drishyam: The Conclusion’
In other words, October’s theatrical calendar has something for every mood – provided the mood is not “stay home”.
Here is the theatrical calendar:
October 1
1. Baththa (Tamil)
Main cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Lijomol Jose
Director: Balaji Tharaneetharan
Release date: October 1, 2026
It is 1986 in Madras, and an eight-year-old boy has done something spectacularly unwise: locked a feared gangster in a school toilet. Vijay Sethupathi plays the man on the wrong side of the door in a story that finds an unlikely connection beneath its comic setup. Balaji Tharaneetharan, who previously directed Vijay Sethupathi in ‘Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom’ and ‘Seethakaathi’, reunites with the actor for a film that appears to find room for tenderness amid the chaos.
ALSO READ | Indian Stars Whose Biggest Box-Office Hits Came Later
2. Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai (Tamil)
Main cast: Nivin Pauly, Soori, Anjali
Director: Ram
Release date: October 1, 2026
What would you ask a man who claims to be 8,000 years old? In Ram's fantasy romance, a 32-year-old traveller meets an immortal stranger during a train journey, and an encounter involving a rat opens onto a love story that has crossed centuries. Nivin Pauly, Soori and Anjali lead a film whose premise is as strange as its title is poetic. Having already travelled to the Rotterdam film festival, it finally reaches Indian theatres this October.
October 2
3. Drishyam: The Conclusion (Hindi)
Main cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta, Jaideep Ahlawat, Prakash Raj
Director: Abhishek Pathak
Release date: October 2, 2026
October 2 is here, and Vijay Salgaonkar presumably remembers exactly where he was. The date that became the most famous alibi in the ‘Drishyam’ universe now hosts the final Hindi installment. Ajay Devgn returns as the resourceful family man, while Tabu's Meera still has unfinished business and Jaideep Ahlawat enters as investigator Rajveer Singh Tomar. This chapter has its own story rather than simply copying the Malayalam ‘Drishyam 3’, so even viewers who know Mohanlal's version cannot assume they know Vijay's last move. And yes, that pav bhaji memory is still doing promotional duty.
4. Prem Keetanu (Hindi)
Main cast: Veer Pahariya, Aafiya Sayed, Aparshakti Khurana, Rakesh Bedi
Director: Apoorv Singh Karki
Release date: October 2, 2026
For anyone who needs a breather after Vijay Salgaonkar's chess game, ‘Prem Keetanu’ heads back to the considerably messier business of first love. The college-set romance follows friendships, crushes and heartbreak inside a hostel, with Veer Pahariya taking on his next lead role after ‘Sky Force’. Aafiya Sayed makes her film debut, while Aparshakti Khurana and Rakesh Bedi join the ensemble. Expect the kind of youthful decisions that make excellent memories and terrible advice.
5. Sigma (Tamil)
Main cast: Sundeep Kishan, Faria Abdullah, Sampath Raj, Shiv Panditt
Director: Jason Sanjay
Release date: October 2, 2026
An RJ, an undercover identity and a treasure hunt worth hundreds of crores: ‘Sigma’ does not intend to spend its first act sitting still. Sundeep Kishan plays Guru, whose pursuit of a massive haul draws him into a world of shifting loyalties. The heist thriller also marks the directorial debut of Jason Sanjay, Vijay's son. That connection may bring an extra wave of attention, but the film's own hook is its promise of a protagonist who may be running a bigger game than everyone around him realises.
6. Don't Trouble the Trouble (Telugu)
Main cast: Fahadh Faasil, Ssara Palekar, Saurabh Sachdeva, Mahesh Manjrekar
Director: Shashank Yeleti
Release date: October 2, 2026
Fahadh Faasil plays Suri, a conman whose plans are interrupted by a schoolgirl and a wish that goes horribly wrong. When Divya accidentally makes her parents disappear, Suri becomes an unlikely partner in her attempt to get them back. Ssara Palekar plays the girl in this fantasy comedy, which gives Fahadh Faasil a Telugu lead built around mischief and reluctant responsibility. For once, the smooth operator's biggest problem cannot simply be talked away.
7. Bail (Kannada)
Main cast: Shiva Rajkumar, Sanjana Anand, Dheekshith Shetty, Sai Kumar, Jayaram
Director: Pavan Wadeyar
Release date: October 2, 2026
Shiva Rajkumar's character is a composed police officer and family man until an unprecedented incident upends both worlds. ‘Bail’ moves through an investigation, courtroom proceedings and the strain placed on his home life. Pavan Wadeyar has described its title as a reference to the legal lifeline that can also become a loophole. That makes this more than a straightforward cop-versus-criminal showdown: the suspense lies in what happens when the system a man serves starts closing in around him.
8. Avarachan & Sons (Malayalam)
Main cast: Biju Menon, Ganapathi, Sreenath Bhasi, Vinay Forrt, Grace Antony
Director: Thamby
Release date: October 2, 2026
Some families can turn a small disagreement into a full-scale event. ‘Avarachan & Sons’ brings Biju Menon together with Ganapathi, Sreenath Bhasi, Vinay Forrt and Grace Antony for a Malayalam family entertainer built around relationships across generations. The ensemble is the draw here: several performers with sharply different comic rhythms sharing one household's joys and friction. Anyone hoping for a film they can watch with their own argumentative relatives may have found the month's candidate.
9. Digger (English)
Main cast: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Release date: October 2, 2026
Tom Cruise usually saves the day by running towards danger. In ‘Digger’, the powerful man he plays appears to have helped create it. Alejandro G. Iñárritu's darkly comic film follows a figure scrambling to present himself as humanity's saviour after an ecological catastrophe. With Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons and John Goodman in the cast, this is an unusually unpredictable Tom Cruise outing. The spectacle may be large, but so is the question of whether the man at its centre deserves to be believed.
10. Verity (English)
Main cast: Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett
Director: Michael Showalter
Release date: October 2, 2026
Dakota Johnson plays Lowen Ashleigh, a writer hired to finish the books of bestselling author Verity Crawford after an accident. At the Crawford home, she discovers a manuscript that suggests her new assignment may be considerably more dangerous than a publishing deadline. Anne Hathaway plays Verity and Josh Hartnett her husband Jeremy in this adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel. If the book kept readers arguing about what really happened, the film has an especially juicy mystery to inherit.
October 9
11. Udta Teer (Hindi)
Main cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Sara Ali Khan, Rahul Bose, Gulshan Grover
Director: Aakash Kaushik
Release date: October 9, 2026
Ayushmann Khurrana plays a Pakistani spy who loses his memory and comes to believe he is Indian. That is a problem for his mission, a gift for the film's comedy and potentially a much bigger headache once the truth catches up with him. Sara Ali Khan joins him in ‘Udta Teer’, Aakash Kaushik's directorial debut. The identity mix-up gives the spy story a distinctly Ayushmann-shaped twist: a man trying to stay undercover while no longer knowing who he is.
12. Aadarsha Kutumbam House No. 47 – AK47 (Telugu)
Main cast: Venkatesh, Srinidhi Shetty, Nara Rohith, Nivetha Pethuraj, Rao Ramesh
Director: Trivikram Srinivas
Release date: October 9, 2026
The title sounds like a neat little house; the residents may disagree. Venkatesh plays Chittibabu in Trivikram Srinivas's family entertainer about an apparently ideal household with pressures of its own. Expect family arguments, affection and the sort of comic timing Venkatesh can make look effortless. An earlier promotion carried an October 2 date, but the newer release announcement places the film on October 9, giving Chittibabu a weekend of his own.
13. The Social Reckoning (English)
Main cast: Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Betty Gilpin
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Release date: October 9, 2026
16 years after ‘The Social Network’ dramatised Facebook's beginnings, Aaron Sorkin returns to examine what happened when its power became impossible to ignore. Mikey Madison plays whistleblower Frances Haugen, Jeremy Allen White plays The Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, and Jeremy Strong steps into the role of Mark Zuckerberg. Built around the Facebook Files, this is a companion film rather than a conventional sequel. The stakes have grown from who owns a website to what that website has done to the world.
14. Other Mommy (English)
Main cast: Jessica Chastain, Arabella Olivia Clark, Jay Duplass, Dichen Lachman
Director: Rob Savage
Release date: October 9, 2026
When a child says there is somebody else in the house, horror-film parents really ought to listen. Based on Josh Malerman’s ‘Incidents Around the House’, ‘Other Mommy’ follows young Bela and the sinister presence that wants a place in her family. Jessica Chastain takes on a dual role, playing both Bela's mother and a terrifying double. Rob Savage directs, trading the familiar comfort of home for the unnerving thought that the thing calling itself family might be waiting in the next room.
October 15
15. Jailer 2 (Tamil)
Main cast: Rajinikanth, Vidya Balan, S. J. Suryah, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Ramya Krishnan, Yogi Babu
Director: Nelson Dilipkumar
Release date: October 15, 2026
Retirement remains a remarkably dangerous hobby for Tiger Muthuvel Pandian. Rajinikanth returns to the role that powered Jailer, with Nelson Dilipkumar again directing and Anirudh Ravichander handling the music. Vidya Balan, S. J. Suryah and Suraj Venjaramoodu are among the notable additions to the cast. The makers have kept the central story close to their chest, so it is best to leave the precise trouble awaiting Tiger to the film. What is certain is that his quiet family life is unlikely to stay quiet for long.
16. Bohurupi: The Golden Daku (Bengali)
Main cast: Shiboprosad Mukherjee, Koushani Mukherjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Sohini Sarkar
Directors: Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee
Release date: October 15, 2026
Bikram Pramanik is back, and so is the prospect of another elaborate chase. The sequel to the 2024 Bengali hit ‘Bohurupi’ reunites Shiboprosad Mukherjee's fugitive with Koushani Mukherjee's Jhimli. This time, Jisshu Sengupta enters as a police officer intent on catching him. Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee return behind the camera for a Durga Puja release that has the pleasures of a familiar outlaw and the promise of new tricks up his sleeve.
17. Emperor vs Sarat Chandra (Bengali)
Main cast: Tota Roy Chowdhury, Abir Chatterjee, Mimi Chakraborty, Kanchan Mullick
Director: Srijit Mukherji
Release date: October 15, 2026
Can a fictional rebel threaten a real empire? Srijit Mukherji's historical drama draws on the colonial ban on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Pather Dabi. Tota Roy Chowdhury plays the writer, while Abir Chatterjee embodies Sabyasachi, the revolutionary at the heart of his book. By bringing an author face to face with the political force of his own creation, ‘Emperor vs Sarat Chandra’ offers a literary counterpoint to the month's bigger action spectacles.
18. The Eken: Kerala-e Kurukshetra (Bengali)
Main cast: Anirban Chakrabarti, Suhotra Mukhopadhyay, Somak Ghosh, Raima Sen, Ritwick Chakraborty
Director: Joydeep Mukherjee
Release date: October 15, 2026 in West Bengal; October 16 elsewhere in India
Eken Babu has another mystery to solve, this time far from home. The disappearance of a prominent man draws the deceptively bumbling detective, played by Anirban Chakrabarti, into a Kerala case whose first puzzle may be whether he has been invited or abducted. His familiar companions Bapi and Promotho return, giving the franchise its easy comic rapport amid the intrigue. It opens in West Bengal on October 15, ahead of its wider Indian release the next day.
October 16
19. Ranabaali (Telugu)
Main cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Rashmika Mandanna, Arnold Vosloo
Director: Rahul Sankrityan
Release date: October 16, 2026
The famine-stricken India of the 1870s provides the setting for Rahul Sankrityan's period action drama. Vijay Deverakonda plays a rebel resisting colonial oppression, Rashmika Mandanna plays Jayamma, and Arnold Vosloo appears as the British officer Sir Theodore Hector. The Great Madras Famine is a grim historical backdrop, so the stakes extend beyond a hero's personal revenge. For real-life couple Vijay and Rashmika, who have shared the screen before, this reunion comes with an altogether larger canvas.
20. Prahaar: The Untold Story of Ujjwal Nikam (Hindi)
Main cast: Rajkummar Rao, Wamiqa Gabbi, Jaideep Ahlawat, Sikandar Kher, Lalit Prabhakar
Director: Avinash Arun
Release date: October 16, 2026
After the 26/11 Mumbai attacks came a long fight for justice in the courtroom. Rajkummar Rao plays public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam in a drama centred on the prosecution of Ajmal Kasab, played by Lalit Prabhakar. Avinash Arun directs a cast that also includes Wamiqa Gabbi and Jaideep Ahlawat. Its subject carries enormous weight; the film's intrigue lies in the arguments, evidence and human resolve behind a case whose outcome the audience already knows.
21. Nayyi Navelli (Hindi)
Main cast: Yami Gautam, Addinath M. Kothare, Sunita Rajwar, Mita Vashisht, Anurag Thakur
Director: Balaji Mohan
Release date: October 16, 2026
Mohini seems like the perfect new bride, which naturally makes somebody in the family suspicious. In this Meerut-set horror comedy, her brother-in-law Bantu becomes convinced that she is a daayan. Yami Gautam plays Mohini, with Anurag Thakur as the man whose accusation could turn domestic life into a supernatural investigation. Whether he has spotted a real secret or simply invented one is the fun of the setup. Family politics are frightening enough before anybody starts talking about witches.
22. DeSu7 (Bengali)
Main cast: Dev, Subhashree Ganguly, Anirban Bhattacharya, Priyanka Sarkar
Director: Dev
Release date: October 16, 2026
Dev and Subhashree Ganguly reunite on screen in a film built around two former lovers finding their way back to each other after years apart. Politics, action and unfinished feelings complicate the reunion. ‘DeSu7’ also marks Dev's first film as director, making the off-screen milestone almost as significant as the on-screen pairing. It arrives in the middle of a crowded Durga Puja contest, when a beloved screen couple can be a powerful reason to buy a ticket.
23. Street Fighter (English)
Main cast: Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Callina Liang, Jason Momoa, Vidyut Jammwal
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Release date: October 16, 2026
Ryu and Ken enter the World Warrior Tournament, but the fights are only part of the problem: a conspiracy threatens to make the competition much more than a test of skill. Andrew Koji plays Ryu, Noah Centineo is Ken, Callina Liang takes on Chun-Li, Jason Momoa appears as Blanka and Vidyut Jammwal plays Dhalsim. Set in 1993, this new adaptation has enough recognisable faces and moves to draw game fans. Whether it can turn those into a satisfying movie is the real boss battle.
24. Whalefall (English)
Main cast: Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue
Director: Brian Duffield
Release date: October 16, 2026
Jay Gardiner dives into the ocean searching for his late father's remains and ends up trapped inside a sperm whale. That sentence is both the plot and a fairly compelling argument for seeing ‘Whalefall’ on the biggest screen available. Austin Abrams plays Jay, with Josh Brolin as his father. Brian Duffield directs this adaptation of Daniel Kraus's novel, turning a grief story into a survival thriller with a particularly unforgiving clock: Jay has roughly an hour of oxygen.
October 23
25. Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar (Hindi)
Main cast: Alisha Chopra, Sparsh Walia, Sakshi Vaidya, Kunal Vaid, Sargun Kaur Luthra
Director: Anuj Saini
Release date: October 23, 2026
The title asks a question many former schoolmates would rather avoid: what happens when old feelings get another chance? Three friends attend a school reunion and find themselves navigating new relationships, loyalties and the absurdities of modern romance. Anuj Saini makes his directorial debut, with Luv Ranjan producing. It is the month's softer counterprogramming for viewers who prefer awkward reunions and familiar faces to spies, gangsters and sea mammals.
26. Irandu Vaanam (Tamil)
Main cast: Vishnu Vishal, Mamitha Baiju
Director: Ram Kumar
Release date: October 23, 2026
Vishnu Vishal reunites with Ram Kumar, the filmmaker behind ‘Mundasupatti’ and ‘Ratsasan’, but this time the premise points towards fantasy and romance. Mamitha Baiju joins him in a story about two very different people whose paths meet in unexpected ways. The makers have revealed little more about the plot, which leaves the tone open to surprise. Given that this actor-director combination has already moved comfortably between comedy and thriller, the new genre turn is a reason to be curious.
27. Clayface (English)
Main cast: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan
Director: James Watkins
Release date: October 23, 2026 in North America; international rollout begins October 21
An actor's face is his livelihood. For Matt Hagen, played by Tom Rhys Harries, it also becomes the site of a nightmare after a violent attack and an experimental attempt to repair the damage. James Watkins directs this DC film as a body-horror story, a far cry from the usual capes-and-quips pitch. The character's power to change his appearance might sound enviable until you consider what it costs him to acquire it.
28. Klara and the Sun (English)
Main cast: Jenna Ortega, Mia Tharia, Amy Adams, Steve Buscemi, Natasha Lyonne
Director: Taika Waititi
Release date: October 23, 2026 in the US
Jenna Ortega plays Klara, an artificial friend chosen to keep a young girl named Josie company. As Klara studies the family around her, the question becomes whether something made to observe and serve can understand love better than the people who take it for granted. Mia Tharia plays Josie and Amy Adams her mother in Taika Waititi's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel. Its science fiction premise promises an unusually intimate story about loneliness, hope and being human.
29. Wildwood (English)
Main voice cast: Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett
Director: Travis Knight
Release date: October 23, 2026 in the US
When crows carry off her baby brother, Prue ventures into a forbidden forest to bring him home. That journey leads to strange creatures, hidden worlds and the lavish stop-motion craft of LAIKA, the studio behind Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. Peyton Elizabeth Lee voices Prue, while Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali and Angela Bassett join the voice cast. For families seeking something wondrous with a slightly spooky edge, this may be October's most inviting adventure.
October 30
30. Cult (Telugu)
Main cast: Vishwak Sen, Gayatri Bhardwaj, Murli Sharma, Tarak Ponnappa
Director: Vishwak Sen
Release date: October 30, 2026
The month closes with the kind of Goa trip nobody would ever put in a holiday brochure. A group of young people arrives looking for a good time and finds itself in a deadly game controlled by a mysterious Game Master. Vishwak Sen directs and stars in this survival slasher, with Gayatri Bhardwaj among the cast. Earlier release lists placed it on October 23; newer promotions give it October 30, a fitting slot for a film built around fear and bad decisions.
From the alibi that refuses to die to a detective lost in Kerala and a man trapped inside a whale, October's films have no shortage of ways to keep audiences guessing. The safest prediction is that Vijay Salgaonkar will still remember the date.
