14 Most Exciting September 2026 Theatrical Releases You Should Book Your Tickets For

Cinema halls in India have had a strange couple of years. Ticket prices climbed, the OTT queue kept growing longer, and going out to watch something new started to feel optional in a way it never used to. September doesn't bother easing back in.

There are more than a dozen releases spread across four weekends and half a dozen languages, running from Zach Cregger's swing at Resident Evil to Om Prasad and Hari Prasad Sharma working through three decades of unsaid things in a single Hindi dramedy. More than one weekend this month has two big titles going head to head, so advance booking is worth the effort.

Here's everything landing in Indian cinemas in September

After three seasons of turning Mirzapur into one of Indian streaming’s most recognisable crime sagas, the franchise is finally moving to theatres. Pankaj Tripathi returns as Kaleen Bhaiya, Ali Fazal as Guddu Pandit, and, most importantly for fans, Divyenndu is back as Munna Bhaiya.

The film goes back to the world of the first season, which explains how Munna and Bablu Pandit can return despite what happened to them later in the series. Jitendra Kumar takes over the role of Bablu, while Ravi Kishan joins the franchise as a new character. With the familiar power games, violence and revenge now playing out on a much bigger screen, this is essentially Mirzapur giving its fanbase the theatrical event it has been waiting for. 

Release date: September 4

Adria Arjona leads Adam Wingard’s latest genre mash-up, playing an Army veteran pulled back into action when genetically engineered super-soldiers break out of a secret military facility. Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens also star in a film that looks like Wingard having fun with action, horror and sci-fi, with Arjona at the centre of all the chaos. It is being presented in India by PVR INOX Pictures.

Release date: September 4

Nearly three decades after Practical Magic became a cult favourite, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as witch sisters Sally and Gillian Owens. The sequel picks up with the Owens family still dealing with the curse that has followed them for generations, this time bringing a new generation of witches into the story. Bullock and Kidman are also producing the sequel, directed by Susanne Bier and inspired by Alice Hoffman’s The Book of Magic

Release date: September 9

The psychological crime-thriller Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as television journalist Chris Hansen, is speculated to be one of the best performances by the actor.

Release date: September 25

Karthi returns to the spy role that made the first film a hit, with PS Mithran back in the director’s chair and SJ Suryah returning for another round of sparring. The sequel arrives a day before Ranabaali, setting up a box office clash between two of the biggest current draws in Tamil and Telugu cinema.

Release date: September 10

Manoj Bajpayee plays Masterji, a retired schoolteacher who refuses to sell his Mumbai apartment to a developer, even as his neighbours are tempted by the offer. The film is adapted from Aravind Adiga’s 2011 novel, and brings together Boman Irani, Divya Dutta and Sukant Goel alongside Bajpayee. Directed by Ben Rekhi, it also marks Rana Daggubati’s Spirit Media’s first Hindi feature. 

Release date: September 11

Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan are sharing the screen again after 18 years, which is reason enough to make this one interesting. The two reunite under Priyadarshan, who previously directed them in Bhool Bhulaiyaa, for a thriller that brings their very different screen personas into the same story.

Release date: September 11 

Kareena Kapoor and Prithviraj Sukumaran headline Meghna Gulzar’s crime thriller, playing police officers caught in a story about crime, justice and punishment. The film is inspired by true events and marks the first time the two actors have shared the screen, with the story built around the increasingly blurred line between law and justice.

Release date: September 18

Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia lead this folklore-inspired fantasy thriller, directed by Deepak Kumar Misra. Malhotra plays a rational urban man who returns to his ancestral village and ventures into a forbidden forest, where he awakens a supernatural force and finds himself caught up in a fight for the survival of his people. The film is shaping up as one of the more distinctive genre bets on the Hindi release calendar this month.

Release date: September 25

Brad Pitt stars as Special Forces officer James Belmont, who survives a plane crash only to find himself stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with his combat dog, Odin. Directed by David Ayer, the survival thriller turns the pair's struggle against the elements into a story about the bond between a soldier and the animal that has been trained to fight alongside him. J.K. Simmons and Anna Lambe also star.

Release date: September 25

Na Hong-jin returns to feature filmmaking after a decade with this sci-fi thriller set in Hope Harbor, a village near the Demilitarized Zone, where reports of a mysterious creature spiral into a fight for survival. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and its India release will run across English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Korean, with Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Alicia Vikander, and Michael Fassbender in the cast.

Release date: September 25

Kunal Kemmu turns writer-director for this action-comedy about two inseparable friends whose ordinary lives take a very unexpected turn. Kemmu also stars alongside Preity G Zinta, Gullak’s Sparsh Shrivastava and newcomer Vanshika Dhir. It is the first production from Kemmu and Chirag Nihalani’s Drongo Films, and Amazon MGM Studios is giving it a theatrical release before it eventually moves to Prime Video. 

Release date: September 18

Nani leads this Telugu period action drama from Dasara director Srikanth Odela, set in 1980s Secunderabad. The story follows a marginalized community fighting discrimination and for citizenship under an unlikely leader, with Kayadu Lohar, Mohan Babu, Sonali Kulkarni and Raghav Juyal among the supporting cast. The film will be released across several Indian languages, including Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.

Release date: September 24

Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna reunite on screen, years after Geetha Govindam and Dear Comrade made them one of Telugu cinema’s most popular pairings. This time, they’re coming together for a romantic action drama directed by Rahul Sankrityan, with the reunion itself likely to be a big part of the film’s appeal.

Release date: September 11