Amazon Prime Video's Adhura trailer launch: First half, second half

“We have surfed the horror genre, and though I, personally, am a bit scared of scary content, the genre has a huge following. So, when EMMAY Entertainment approached us with a proposal for making a full-blown horror series, I thought we should venture into it.” That was Aparna Purohit, Head of India Originals Content at Amazon Prime Video, speaking at the trailer launch of Adhura, held on the 28^th June, late evening, at Snowball studios, near Mahalakshmi, Mumbai. An alumnus of Jamia Millia Islamia, with an M.A. in Mass Communication, Films & TV, she did her graduation from Delhi University, a B.A. Hons, in Journalism, and worked as an RJ in New Delhi, before moving to Mumbai. With several Amazon Prime shows proving hits, she is riding a success wave.

6 p.m. at an unknown place was always going to be tough on a rainy day when there were four events lined-up. To make things easier, I called the PR agency, for directions, and…surprise, surprise, the lady said they would arrange for cars to pick us up opposite Mahalakshmi railway station, which would take us to this venue. I made it to the pick-up point at 6.50. This sounds very late, but most of these events start 90-120 minutes late, so it was okay. It took 10 minutes for the car to arrive and another 15 minutes to drop me. 7.25, and I was there. What did I tell you? Proceedings hadn’t begun yet. But they did, 10 minutes later. Or, sort of.

A tall man called Raman Iyer (no idea how he spells his name), with a pony tail, narrated a horror story, with help from a teenager, whose name I did not catch. It was a mildly scary story about a boarding school and a swimming pool, the same elements that occur in Adhura. But it had nothing whatsoever to do with the web series. This was the first time I witnessed a supporting act in a web series trailer launch. To his credit, a man called ‘Iyer’, spoke clear, correct Hindi, with almost no faltering and fumbling, and the teenager provided the sound effects from behind the curtain. It was now 7.40-ish, and the proceedings began in earnest. Regular Amazon Prime compère, Rohini was conspicuous by her absence and the master of ceremonies was a man called Vishal (that’s what I heard; with no press release at hand yet, I am going largely by memory). He did a good job, even if he went overboard occasionally. After all, such occasions are just the platforms for back-slapping and praise showering.

EMMAY Entertainment was founded by producer-director-writer Nikkhil Advani and his sister, Monisha, with friend Madhu Bhojwani, in 2011. The first film they produced was D Day (2013). For Amazon Prime Video, they made Mumbai Diaries 26/11, based on the 26/11 terror attacks, in 2021. It was directed by both Nikkhil Advani and Nikhil Gonsalves, and starred a huge cast of Mohit Raina, Tina Desai, Konkona Sen Sharma, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Prakash Belawadi, Mishal Raheja, Satyajeet Dubey, Natasha Bharadwaj, and Mrunmayee Deshpande. It proved highly successful. Adhura is written and directed by Gauravv K. Chawala (the odd spelling may be attributable to numerology) and Ananya Banerjee. When Nikkhil heard the subject, he told the writers, “Well, I would not direct such a subject, nor would you have any creative interference from me, because I am terrified of horror films.”

At 43, Gauravv K. Chawla (P.O.W. Bandi Yuddh Ke, 2016, which he co-wrote and co-directed, Nikhil being another co-writer and co-director), Baazaar (2018, co-directed) and Kaun Banegi Shikharwati (2022, written and directed by Gauravv and Ananya). Adhura stars Rasika Duggal, Ishwak Singh, Poojan Chhabra, Shrenik Arora (child artiste, of Night Manager fame), who were present, as were the writers-directors and the producers. One missed Rahul Dev, K.C. Shankar, Priya Banerjee, Jaimini Pathak, Arjun Deswal, Young Adhiraj, Sahil Salathia, Rijul Ray, Aru Krishansh Verma, Rajat and Akanksha Vishwakarma. The woman of the day, as always at Amazon Prime Video events, was Aparna Purohit.

As usual, there was a chat with the team, conducted by the compère, the trailer was shown and the dignitaries fielded questions from media-persons, the personalities putting questions being short-listed in advance. At the very end, a few extempore questions were also allowed. No surprise that 10-year-old, bespectacled, Shrenik, nervous and excited in equal measure, was the centre of attraction. As it happens, the show has been rated A (for adults only), and it would have been a horror had it not been certified so, which means that Shrenik and his friends will not be able to watch it, at least officially. Irony?

Shrenik wanted everybody to watch it and like it, which will give him surrogate pleasure. The makers shared that Shrenik was very easy to work with and spent most of his spare time reading books, including Harry Potter. When children are involved, the production team does not expect them to work when they are feeling ill or are in great discomfort. Adults might be able to work even under these conditions, with extra effort and will-power, but when it comes to children, it is best to let them go and rest. Rasika Duggal, playing a teacher at the boarding school where the story is set, confessed that after the spectacular success of Mirzapur, she was very keen on having a second innings at Amazon Prime Video. Ishwak, who has been around for a decade, has a rare name. I have heard Ikshwaku and Ashfak, but this is a first. Not only do I find it rare, Americans (he studied in the USA) too kept mis-pronouncing it.

Gauravv has been to a boarding school, so the setting resonated with him perfectly. Besides the boarding school, key elements in the location of Adhura (which means half/incomplete) are a mountain, a clock tower (don’t look-up now, you might see a…!), dogs, shadows and a swimming pool. The school was shut due to an incident, but was restarted later, under new management. And there happens to be reunion in 2007. As you would have guessed by now, it is the character of Shrenik that wreaks havoc in the school. But nothing and nobody is as they seem. The character of Rasika seems to be a sympathetic type, who will help get to the bottom of things, but she is hiding a few devils of her own. Adhura is frightening, with a play on eyes, angles and claustrophobia (one boy is locked in a room). This writer asked about the sound effects and sound design of the film, for more than half the impact of a horror film comes from these ingredients, and Ananya replied that they have worked very hard on it. A few elements were incorporated at the writing stage, while the bulk of the work was done post production. As many as eight persons are credited in the sound department. I cannot pinpoint why, because there are no obvious similarities, but Adhura reminded me of Exorcist.

An eerie set was designed for the event. After the show, when we were leaving, there was a young woman walking ahead of me, suddenly, the door of a cabinet opened, and a man in a tight jacket howled at her. She got quite a scare. That was Adhura. Be prepared to get scared in this 7-part web-series that starts airing on 07 July.

For an event scheduled to begin at 6 pm and ending past 9 pm, 90 minutes to 2 hours from anywhere, there was no food or any form of drink, soft or hard, on offer. Starters were going around, and one had to be content with that. Since I (and many others) had been driven there by a chauffeur, in pelting rain, late in the evening, we had no clue where we were. Going by the precedent, I inquired if there was any transport to anywhere, from the by-lane of Mahalakshmi. I was told categorically, “No”. Everybody was to fend for themselves, including many of the organising team. Car after car kept driving off, and nobody cared to ask if anybody needed a lift. After 10 minutes of hoping, I ventured out into the rain, and, being a Mumbai-man all my life, did manage to reach home. A little later than expected, but home, nevertheless.

In totality, the first half of the Adhura trailer launch event was good, the second half not so good.

Never mind. Like a child says in the series, “Good night, sleep tight.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIPnNOeQrs4