The actor marked Dussehra with a new track from his long-delayed army drama, but months after reportedly clearing a government NOC, there's still no official date on the table.
Salman Khan picked Dussehra to remind everyone that Maatrubhumi still exists. The actor posted a new song from the film, titled Jai Hind, on Instagram on Monday, and within minutes his comments section turned into a release-date interrogation.
His caption didn't help much either. "2 days out of 365 days to show yr love, respect and patriotism for your mother land is not enough," he wrote, before telling unimpressed fans to go find Himesh and Stebin's handles if they didn't like the song, a cheeky nod to the track's presumed composer and singer. Fans weren't biting. Most just wanted to know when they'd actually get to watch the film.
It's a fair question at this point. Maatrubhumi was originally due in April this year. It never showed up. Multiple reports through the summer suggested the holdup wasn't about post-production or scheduling clashes but something thornier: the Ministry of Defence and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry reportedly flagged concerns over the film's strongly anti-China tone before clearing it for release.
A film that's already changed its name twice
The project has had an identity crisis of its own making. It was first announced as Battle Of Galwan, a title that left little to the imagination about its subject. That was later softened to Maatrubhumi: May War Rest In Peace, and it's now simply going by Maatrubhumi in most of the recent conversation around it.
A few days before this song dropped, there were reports that the Apoorva Lakhia directorial had finally secured an NOC from the I&B Ministry, which would, in theory, clear the biggest hurdle standing between the film and a theatrical release. But clearance isn't the same as a date, and Salman's team hasn't put one out yet.
Some reports have floated a window of late November or early December, though nothing has been confirmed. Given how long this film has sat on the shelf, with its title changed twice and its content reportedly re-examined by two government ministries, Salman's fans can perhaps be forgiven for wanting more than a lyrical cut before they start marking calendars.
For now, Jai Hind is what's on offer. It's patriotic, it's loud, and it's clearly meant to remind audiences that an army officer played by Salman Khan is still coming. The bigger question, the one nobody in Bollywood seems ready to answer yet, is simply: when.
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