The Maatrubhumi trailer was unveiled on 10 November, giving the first full look at Salman Khan’s war film about an Indian soldier who walks into the battlefield to talk peace with Chinese troops. The film, called Maatrubhumi: May War Rest in Peace, is directed by Apoorva Lakhia and is set for release in cinemas on 4 December 2026. The Maatrubhumi trailer runs for four minutes and 35 seconds, and it sets out a story of courage, conflict and a soldier’s effort to stop a war before it starts.
Salman Khan plays Colonel B. Santosh Babu of the 16th Bihar Regiment, and Chitrangada Singh plays his wife. The film is inspired by the 2020 Galwan Valley clash between Indian and Chinese troops, and it is based on the book India’s Most Fearless by Shiv Aroor. The story was written by Aroor and Suresh Nair, with a screenplay by Chintan Gandhi. The film was earlier titled Battle of Galwan, and it is produced by Salman Khan Films and Salma Khan.
The trailer opens with Chinese soldiers preparing to cross the Line of Actual Control, and then follows Salman Khan’s officer as he volunteers to go to the battlefield to start peace talks. What begins as a meeting soon turns into a dispute over territory, and the two sides come to blows. The action is hand to hand, with sticks and stones rather than guns, because soldiers on both sides do not use firearms during border face-offs along the Line of Actual Control under bilateral agreements meant to stop a clash turning into a full war.
Maatrubhumi trailer and the message of peace
The Maatrubhumi trailer carries a clear message about the cost of war. Salman Khan’s character asks the Chinese soldiers to end the enmity between the two countries, and the film argues that a problem settled at a table is better than one settled on a battlefield. One line quoted in the coverage of the trailer asks, “If a problem can be solved at the table, why go to war?” The trailer also shows the family life of the soldier, with Chitrangada Singh as a wife who worries each time he is called away, and it shows the strain that duty puts on the people waiting at home.
The tone of the Maatrubhumi trailer is lighter than the subject might suggest. Salman Khan’s officer cracks jokes even in hard moments, with one-liners that drew attention in early reviews of the footage. The mix of humour, action and patriotism runs through the trailer, and the film is presented as a story about soldiers and their families on both sides of a conflict, rather than a film that takes aim at one side. At the trailer launch in Mumbai, Salman Khan dismissed reports that the government had pressured the makers to change the script, and said the film had no negative forces in it.
Maatrubhumi trailer launch and the release date
The Maatrubhumi trailer launch also settled the release date after a long run of delays. The film will open on 4 December 2026, the same day as Shraddha Kapoor’s Eetha, which sets up a direct clash at the box office. Salman Khan said at the launch that the delay came down to visual effects, editing and a decision by the makers to put out a new version of the film, and he denied that the censor board or the government had forced changes to the script. The filmmakers had earlier said the film had not yet gone to the censors.
The film has had a troubled road to release. Defence journalists Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh, co-authors of the India’s Most Fearless series on which the film was partly based, ended their association with the project on 5 November, saying it had moved beyond their account of the Galwan clash. The Maatrubhumi trailer arrived five days later, and the launch in Mumbai put the focus back on the film itself, with Salman Khan repeating that the story came from something his father told him about how a bullet reaches a mother’s heart.
Maatrubhumi trailer and what the film sets out to do
The Maatrubhumi trailer presents a war film that argues against war. It shows a soldier who would rather talk than fight, a family that waits for him to come home, and a border where a single clash can cost lives on both sides. The film reaches cinemas on 4 December 2026, and the trailer is now available on Salman Khan’s official social media channels and his YouTube account.