The film has never been officially released in any form. A copy of the film was leaked online in 2010. The film might be heading for an OTT release in near future.
Shot in 40 days.
According to Anurag Kashyap, all those who have seen the film, are surprised it has been refused a certificate. People have been congratulating him on the film's realistic approach. Directors like Ram Gopal Varma, Govind Nihalani, Sudhir Mishra, Kundan Shah, Ketan Mehta, Aziz Mirza and Farhan Akhtar have liked the film. Only Ashutosh Gowariker said that he saw why the censor board was refusing it a certificate. It is really disturbing, he said.
Panch was leaked online by an anonymous person and that person gave credit to the director of this movie for giving him a copy of the movie to leak it online. Years later, Anurag Kashyap confirmed the news and said that he leaked it online because he wanted people to see his movie.
Anurag Kashyap wanted to make Paanch four years before it eventually got made, in 1999, with Manoj Bajpayee and Raveena Tandon among the lead actors. But things didn't work out. Anurag was not able to find any producer for the film. Then, when Pradeep Tutu Sharma agreed to produce the film, Anurag decided to cast Kay Kay Menon and Tejaswini Kolhapure instead.