The film never got a theatrical or home-video release. The Central Board of Film Certification objected to the film's violence, depiction of drug abuse, and bad language.[2] After some cuts, the film was cleared in 2001.[3] However, it could not be released as the producer faced problems. It was later made available through torrent websites.[4] The film was then screened at several film festivals after being released as web series.[5][6][7]
The soundtrack of the film features music composed by Vishal Bhardwaj and lyrics written by Abbas Tyrewala. The album was released by BMG Crescendo in May 2002,[9] and marked the entry of the music publisher into the Hindi film music market.[10]
In September 1993, while Anurag Kashyap stayed at the St. Xavier's Boys Hostel, spent time with Adam Avil, Eddie Avil, Luke Kenny, and Ulysses Veyra, members of a band initially named Greek, which was later renamed Pralay. He documented their daily activities, filling up forty pages of a small notebook, this formed the basis for a script he began to write in fragments for a film initially titled Mirage, which eventually became Paanch. Kashyap had previously seen ex-VJ Luke Kenny perform in a play directed by Vikram Kapadia. Impressed by Kenny’s performance, Kashyap approached him with a partially completed script. However, this collaboration never happened.[11] Anurag Kashyap Interview Excerpts from the interview (in Hindi) conducted by Pravesh Bhardwaj and Ajay Brahmatmaj[12] Later, while collaborating with Nair, Kashyap stumbled upon files related to the Joshi-Abhyankar Serial Murders, a series of ten murders committed in Pune in 1976.[13]
"Five very ordinary college kids viciously murdered nine people. I got what I needed to finish my script then."
He had also seen a film, Fun (1995), about two mentally unstable girls murdering an elderly woman. Kashyap says—
"There was a structuring in Fun, which you will also see in Paanch. There was something in Fun. When I began looking for it, I saw a pattern in Last Train to Mahakali, in my own film Paanch and in Auto Narayan. All three films had a similar formula. I am able to analyze it because I have.[11]
