New Delhi: The Dussehra week just got funnier. Ayushmann Khurrana and Sara Ali Khan’s much-talked-about spy comedy Udta Teer releases in theatres across India today, October 9, 2026, and early buzz around the film has been anything but quiet. Billed as a high-energy caper that “turns the spy world on its head,” the film marks the second on-screen pairing of the lead actors after Pati Patni Aur Woh Do.
The film introduces a deliciously absurd premise, summed up by its tagline: “Deshbhakti toh yaad hai… par desh nahi” — he remembers his patriotism, but not the country it belongs to. Ayushmann Khurrana plays Bilal (reportedly Bilal Ahmed), a highly trained Pakistani intelligence operative dispatched to India on a mission. An explosion robs him of his memory, and he wakes up convinced that he is an officer of India’s Counter-Terrorism Squad. The rest, as the trailer promises, is pure comic chaos — Bilal starts taking down the very handlers who sent him, while his handlers in Pakistan scramble to reel in their rogue, hyper-patriotic agent.
Directed by debutant Akash A Kaushik — some trade reports spell his name Aakash Kaushik — the film sees Sara Ali Khan step into an action-forward role as a sharp, no-nonsense CTS officer who works alongside Bilal, reportedly unaware of his true identity for a large part of the story. Kaushik, who has earlier served as a dialogue writer and storyteller on films such as Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, Thank God and Housefull 4, makes his directorial debut with the project.
The ensemble is stacked: Ram Kapoor and Gulshan Grover play panicked Pakistani officials trying to track down their runaway asset, while Rahul Bose, Suhail Nayyar, Raghubir Yadav, Brijendra Kala and Supriya Pilgaonkar round out the comic machinery. The film also marks one of the final screen appearances of the late Mukul Dev. Behind the scenes, the music comes from Sachin-Jigar with lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya, and rapper Emiway Bantai reportedly makes his Bollywood playback debut with a track in the film.
Udta Teer is jointly produced by Karan Johar, Adar Poonawalla, Apoorva Mehta, Guneet Monga Kapoor and Achin Jain, reuniting Dharma Productions and Sikhya Entertainment after Kill, Gyaarah Gyaarah and the acclaimed The Lunchbox. On the commercial front, the film faces holdover competition from Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam: The Conclusion, which opened on October 2 and is still pulling family audiences, plus another goofy spy comedy, Vibe, arriving in the coming week.
As for verdicts, film reviews are expected through the day as first-day shows roll out, but the trailer’s reception has been sharply split. Koimoi’s trailer review praised it as a “seriously unserious” film with the India-Pakistan angle free of chest-thumping, while iwmbuzz’s review found the first look predictable and lacking freshness. Social media, meanwhile, has leaned enthusiastic — several users called the amnesiac-spy concept “genius” and said Bollywood comedy finally looks fun again. Whether the full film lives up to the premise will be clear by tonight.
