The film has never been officially released in any form. A copy of the film was leaked online in 2010. The film might be heading for an OTT release in near future.
Panch was leaked online by an anonymous person and that person gave credit to the director of this movie for giving him a copy of the movie to leak it online. Years later, Anurag Kashyap confirmed the news and said that he leaked it online because he wanted people to see his movie.
Shot in 40 days.
According to Anurag Kashyap, all those who have seen the film, are surprised it has been refused a certificate. People have been congratulating him on the film's realistic approach. Directors like Ram Gopal Varma, Govind Nihalani, Sudhir Mishra, Kundan Shah, Ketan Mehta, Aziz Mirza and Farhan Akhtar have liked the film. Only Ashutosh Gowariker said that he saw why the censor board was refusing it a certificate. It is really disturbing, he said.
Anurag Kashyap stated "The censor board officials are not willing to accept that people's sensibilities have changed, their language and tastes have changed. They tell me that, while other films have characters speaking chaste Urdu or Hindi, the protagonists of my film speak abusive language.
These officials refuse to hear the language of today's youth. Where on the streets do you hear people speaking Urdu? Do young roommates in Bombay speak to each other in Urdu?..The board says my film has suggestive dialogues... sexual undertones. My stand is that my film's characters mean what they say. There is no double meaning - the sexual connotation is the only thing the dialogues are meant to convey.
When youngsters make a pass at a girl or when they pull a friend's leg over his crush on someone, why should there be any non-sexual meanings to it? The board officials simply fail to accept that times have changed.While refusing certification, the officials also said the film does not have any positive characters. But they don't seem to understand that there are grey areas in all people. The character of Pondy (played by Vijay Maurya), one of the five protagonists, is definitely positive. You can say the same about Murgi (Aditya Srivastava)."
When youngsters make a pass at a girl or when they pull a friend's leg over his crush on someone, why should there be any non-sexual meanings to it? The board officials simply fail to accept that times have changed.While refusing certification, the officials also said the film does not have any positive characters. But they don't seem to understand that there are grey areas in all people. The character of Pondy (played by Vijay Maurya), one of the five protagonists, is definitely positive. You can say the same about Murgi (Aditya Srivastava)."