Manoj Bajpayee has spoken for the first time in detail about the controversy that forced his Netflix thriller to be renamed from Ghooskhor Pandat to Gajab Raat, explaining that the objections came from people who had neither seen the film nor watched its trailer and were reacting entirely to a title they found offensive. The film premieres on Netflix on Friday, after a months-long legal and public battle that involved an FIR, a Delhi High Court order, a Supreme Court directive and the complete withdrawal of all original promotional material.Manoj Bajpayee said the title simply did not sit well with a section of the audience and the reaction was immediate and intense. “Somehow the title didn’t go well with some segments of the audience. There were some objections to it,” he said in an interview with Zoom.He revealed that the team acted quickly. “We immediately looked into it and already have five titles lined up,” he said.Also Read: Manoj Bajpayee’s Ghooskhor Pandat to be renamed after backlash over titleManoj Bajpayee explained that the film’s internal working title had always been different from Ghooskhor Pandat. “If you look at the clapboard of our film, it had a different name. Then everyone realised that this name is much better because it talks about the character,” he said, referring to the title Ghooskhor Pandat, which was adopted during the promotional phase because the team felt it captured the character more directly.But Manoj Bajpayee made a pointed observation about the nature of the controversy. The people who objected had not seen the film or the trailer. “The objection came from the audience who hadn’t seen the film or the trailer. They were offended just by the title,” he said. “So, we looked into it, corrected it, and the film just went into post-production.”He also pushed back against suggestions that the controversy had caused the film to be delayed. “The film was always scheduled to be released around this time of year. It never changed,” he said. “It was supposed to be released in the first half of the year. I’m not trying to manipulate this, because you know how OTT and Netflix, like OTT and a few other OTT platforms, schedule their entire year way in advance.”Story continues below this adWhat actually happenedThe controversy began in February 2026, when Netflix unveiled the first teaser of the film at its “Next on Netflix 2026” event in Mumbai. The title Ghooskhor Pandat, which translates roughly to “corrupt Pandit,” immediately drew backlash. Multiple groups, particularly from within the Brahmin community, objected that the title associated a community-identifying term with corruption and bribery.The word “Pandat” in the film referred to a fictional nickname given to Manoj Bajpayee’s character, a Delhi Police officer named Ajay Dixit. The actor clarified at the time that the character was not a Pandit by caste but was called “Pandat” as a colloquial nickname within the police department.However, the backlash escalated rapidly. The Uttar Pradesh government ordered an FIR against the film’s makers. A petition was filed seeking to block the film’s release. The matter reached the Delhi High Court, which ordered the takedown of the original teaser and all promotional material.Also Read: Manoj Bajpayee defends Neeraj Pandey amid Ghooskhor Pandat row: Here’s why the title led to FIR, legal blowbackStory continues below this adThe case eventually went to the Supreme Court, where a bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan accepted an affidavit from Neeraj Pandey, who undertook to withdraw the original title. Netflix told the court that the producers had made a conscious decision to adopt a new title. The Supreme Court disposed of the matter and urged YouTubers and social media commentators to put the controversy to rest.On October 15, over eight months after the controversy began, the makers formally announced the new title, Gajab Raat, and released a fresh trailer.The filmGajab Raat is directed by Ritesh Shah, backed up Neeraj Pandey and stars Manoj Bajpayee as Ajay Dixit, a morally conflicted police officer caught in a single chaotic night in New Delhi after a young woman is thrown from a moving vehicle in Connaught Place. The film follows Ajay Dixit as he navigates a case that is more complex than it appears while grappling with his own ethical compromises.The cast includes Saqib Saleem and Nushrratt Bharuccha. The film’s story, according to the makers, opens against the backdrop of a deeply personal loss and pulls the protagonist into a chain of events that reveals something far larger than a single crime. Gajab Raat streams on Netflix from October 23.