The Great Punjab Robbery (2026)
The Great Punjab Robbery Review: A Puzzle-Driven Heist Thriller That Polarises Audiences
The Great Punjab Robbery arrives as an ambitious attempt to inject the heist-thriller formula into Punjabi cinema, a genre that has traditionally leaned on vibrant comedies, weddings, and family dramas. Directed by Saurabh Varma, the film follows three robbers with deliberately absurd monikers—Stapler, Bouncer, and Charger—who seize an ordinary bank and hold seventeen people hostage. But instead of issuing ransom demands, they send the police a series of cryptic riddles, each one pulling the authorities deeper into a mystery that is about far more than money.
The audience numbers are nothing short of extraordinary for a Punjabi film with a modest profile. On BookMyShow, The Great Punjab Robbery holds an outstanding 9.5/10 rating based on over 650 votes, with the most common review tags being #Wellmade, #AwesomeStory, #GreatActing, and #SuperDirection [citation:2]. IMDb and Plex both show the same 9.5 audience score [citation:7]. Yet the film’s theatrical performance tells a very different story: it earned a mere â‚ą0.48 crore worldwide, with an opening day of just â‚ą10 lakh in India—a devastating result against an estimated budget of â‚ą8–10 crore [citation:10][citation:6].
Director Saurabh Varma explained his choice of genre with a clear rationale: “I didn’t want to tell another conventional story. We’ve already seen countless dramas and thrillers across OTT platforms and films, so I wanted to avoid familiar territory. That’s what led me to the heist genre—it brought a fresh layer of suspense, high stakes, and drama” [citation:1]. Raj Kundra, who plays Stapler and also serves as a producer, described the film as having “a deep message,” explaining that his character is a journalist who turns to robbery for reasons the story explores, with the takeaway being “how do we make Punjab great again” [citation:11]. He also called it a “clean family entertainer” with “no slurs, no obscenity” [citation:14].
Audience reactions, however, have been sharply divided. BookMyShow reviews range from effusive praise—”The Great Punjab Robbery is a complete package. The suspense was excellent and the emotional scenes touched my heart”—to outright dismissal: “disaster third class movie not any story” and “Such a bakwaas movie. Its was so boring” [citation:2][citation:5]. Letterboxd users offered more measured takes, with one noting “some good action, not very good, but decent enough” while finding the story “stretched at a lot of places,” and another praising the colour grading as “perfect for the setting” [citation:9]. The film clearly connected with a segment of its audience, but failed to translate that enthusiasm into box office success. For fans of puzzle-box thrillers or Punjabi cinema looking for something different, it offers an intriguing experiment—even if the execution remains contentious.
The Great Punjab Robbery Cast: Raj Kundra Leads an Eclectic Ensemble
The film assembles a mix of Punjabi cinema regulars and newcomers, led by Raj Kundra in his second Punjabi outing:
Raj Kundra leads the film as Stapler, the mastermind behind the riddle-driven heist. Kundra, who also produced the film, described his character as a journalist who turns to crime, and he reportedly knew his lines better than the director himself, according to his co-star Mahabir Bhullar [citation:1]. It marks his second Punjabi film following Mehr (2025). Payal Rajput plays Nimrat Kaur, a key figure in the unfolding drama, bringing star power to the ensemble. Garvita Sadhwani makes her acting debut as Charger, one of the three robbers, while Mahabir Bhullar rounds out the trio as Bouncer.
Ankit Sagar delivers what director Saurabh Varma described as a standout performance, calling him “the film’s Sanjeev Kumar” and naming the veteran actor as his favourite [citation:1]. Paramveer Singh plays ACP Zorawar Dhingra, the officer leading the police response, while Amit Behl is Minister HS Babbar and Vidhi Khanna is Sub Inspector Kailashvati. Kulvir Soni plays Jassi Spider, and Priyanka Bajaj Sibal appears as Simar, a pregnant hostage whose presence raises the stakes. The ensemble is rounded out by Vidhi Khanna and Kulvir Soni, each contributing to the film’s tense, claustrophobic atmosphere.
The Great Punjab Robbery Plot: Riddles, Hostages, and a Deeper Game
The story begins with a crime that seems straightforward enough: three robbers—Stapler, Bouncer, and Charger—walk into the Great Punjab Bank and take seventeen people hostage. But what follows defies every expectation of a conventional heist. There are no ransom demands, no negotiations for safe passage, no list of political prisoners to be released. Instead, the robbers send the police a series of cryptic riddles, each one more baffling than the last, each one leading the authorities deeper into a mystery that has little to do with the money inside the vault.
As the standoff stretches into a tense, drawn-out game of nerve and strategy, the police find themselves racing to decode the robbers’ clues before the situation spirals beyond their control. The riddles are not random—they are carefully constructed pieces of a larger puzzle, designed to expose something hidden, to force the authorities to confront a truth they would rather ignore. The film unfolds in real time, with the pressure mounting on both sides of the barricade as the night wears on.
Director Saurabh Varma has described the film as “a story of rebellion,” and that framing is central to understanding what the robbers are actually after [citation:1]. The heist is not an end in itself but a vehicle for a message, a way of forcing a reckoning. Raj Kundra’s character, Stapler, is revealed to be a journalist by trade, a man who has traded his pen for a gun for reasons the film gradually unpacks. The film’s takeaway, as Kundra put it, is a question: “How do we make Punjab great again?” [citation:11]
The narrative builds toward a climax that recontextualises the entire heist, revealing the motivations behind the riddles and the true target of the robbers’ game. Whether that revelation lands as profound or pretentious has divided audiences, but there is no denying the ambition behind the film’s structure. The Great Punjab Robbery is not content to be a simple thriller; it wants to be a puzzle, a provocation, and a commentary all at once. For viewers willing to engage with its riddles, it offers a heist film unlike any other in Punjabi cinema—one that prioritises the mystery over the money, and the message over the mayhem.
“No demands. No ransom. Just riddles.”