Over five years after his demise, Om Puri’s swansong Khela Hobe is gearing up for release. Director Sunil C Sinha’s movie tapped into the late actor’s humorous streak, depicting him as a leader who contests elections for several years unsuccessfully, believing that he has the public’s support. 

Though Khela Hobe rolled in 2016, it was stuck in the cans for the past six years. Asked about the inordinate delay in the movie’s release, Sinha says, “We had completed post-production by the end of 2019. But due to the pandemic, we were unable to release the film in theatres.” The project, also starring Rati Agnihotri and Mugdha Godse, is now slated to hit the marquee on June 24. The makers recently took the film to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which greenlit it, save for one change. The writer-director says, “In the film, Om ji’s rival is a woman. The censors objected to a scene that saw him abusing her. We had to remove the dialogue.”