The trailer of Salman Khan's war drama Maatrubhumi, billed as Maatrubhumi: May War Rest in Peace, was unveiled by the actor at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday evening, with the makers confirming that the long-delayed film will reach theatres on December 4. The promo moves between battle sequences and the families waiting at home.
In the clip, Khan plays an Army soldier sent to halt the advance of Chinese troops along the border, and the footage shows the two sides massing before spilling into unarmed combat. He is seen trading blows in close-quarter fist fights, leading a small Indian contingent against a far larger opposing force.
The trailer leans on dialogue as much as action. Asked when the fighting will stop, Khan's soldier replies that it will end when those who call for war join the battle themselves. In the closing moments he extends a hand to a Chinese soldier: "Humanity and patriotism is not in ending the enemy, it is in ending the enmity."
The film draws on the 2020 clash between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. Accounts differ on the timing: one report places the standoff in May 2020, another dates the confrontation to June 15 that year. Both put the Indian toll at twenty soldiers, with one describing it as the deadliest India-China face-off in more than four decades. The figure is reported, not independently confirmed.
At the Mumbai event, Khan pushed back against speculation that the project had been reworked under official pressure. The team was not setting itself against China, nor had the government leaned on the makers to change or rewrite the script, he said, calling such talk "bakwas" and "not true at all". He described the film as a human story in which the circumstances, rather than any side, are the negative force.
Apoorva Lakhia, whose earlier credits include Shootout at Lokhandwala, directs. Chitrangda Singh appears in a pivotal role, and the cast includes Mukesh Rishi, Ankur Bhatia, Zeyn Shaw and Abhilash Chaudhary, with Vijay Raaz as narrator. The music is by Himesh Reshammiya, Meet Bros, Sajid Khan, Shamir Tandon and Ayaan Lall, and Salman Khan Films produces.
The project was earlier announced under a Galwan title — one report gives Battle of Galwan, another simply Galwan — and was reportedly asked to drop it because of the sensitivity of the India-China conflict, contributing to delays that followed its announcement last year. On December 4 it opens against Shraddha Kapoor's musical biopic Eetha, directed by Laxman Utekar.
(With inputs from media reports)