Ajay Devgn’s jungle action film Ranger has exited its December 4, 2026 date and will now arrive in 2027, Bollywood Hungama has confirmed. The film, co-starring Sanjay Dutt and Tamannaah Bhatia, is being repositioned as a post-Eid release, likely landing in the summer window after Eid in March 2027.
December 4 becomes a cleaner but still tense clash
With Ranger out, December 4 now belongs to Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan and Raashii Khanna’s untitled comic caper from director Anees Bazmee. It will face Shraddha Kapoor’s Eetha. Prabhas’ period action drama Fauzi could still land on December 3, but trade sources cited by Bollywood Hungama suggest it is more likely to follow Ranger into 2027.
What Ranger is built on
An August report in Mid-Day, cited by Bollywood Hungama, says Devgn plays a forest officer trying to protect tigers while contending with an inefficient team, corrupt superiors and a poaching gang led by Sanjay Dutt. The climax was shot last month in Mumbai, and a special dance number featuring Tamannaah Bhatia and Devgn is still on the production checklist.
Produced by Luv Ranjan and directed by Jagan Shakti, the film is being sold partly on the first action pairing of Devgn and Dutt. Ranjan told Bollywood Hungama in January 2026 that the two have shared screen space many times over 25 years but never in an action film, calling the prospect ‘extremely exciting.’
Why the shift makes scheduling sense
Removing Ranger from December 4 reduces what could have been a three-way or four-way scramble for screens, premium formats and marketing share in a high-stakes holiday frame. A jungle adventure aimed at families and younger viewers also fits a school and college holiday corridor better than a year-end weekend packed with adult-skewing comedies and period action. A source told Bollywood Hungama the film would be ‘an ideal film to release during the school and college holidays.’
- December 4, 2026: Akshay Kumar-led comic caper vs Shraddha Kapoor’s Eetha; Prabhas’ Fauzi possible on December 3 but likely to move.
- Post-Eid 2027: Ranger gets a summer corridor with holiday-driven family footfall.
- Ajay Devgn 2026 slate: two releases — Dhamaal 4, a super-hit earlier in the year, and Drishyam The Conclusion on October 2.
What it means for planners and exhibitors
For entertainment marketers, the date change resets campaign calendars. Ranger‘s teaser-to-trailer cadence, OTT partner conversations and in-cinema collateral now get stretched over a longer pre-release runway, reducing pressure to compress assets before the year-end holiday clutter. Distributors avoid a scenario where Devgn, Kumar, Kapoor and potentially Prabhas would each be negotiating show counts and premium formats simultaneously.
The trade-off is that a post-Eid summer slot is not an automatic win. It gives Ranger direct access to family and student audiences, but also moves it into the competitive summer season. This is best read as positioning: choose the audience window that fits the film, rather than the date that merely carries status.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
