‘Chingum’ premiers at BiFan 2021

With Chingum going to the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in Korea this year, director and writer Mihir Fadnavis is on cloud nine. “I'm extremely honored and excited about this - it has been my lifelong dream to make a genre movie and have it premier at a genre movie festival in Korea,” says he.

Chingum, which is Fadnavis’ debut, is described by him as a ‘bakchod horror film’. It’s the tale of a young man boarding the local train while going on a date, as “creepy noises are heard and shit begins to go down”.

Ask him how it all began, and Fadnavis says that it happened because of his dream to do two things- “make a Mumbai-centric horror film, and create a new kind of a monster, something audiences aren't quite used to and haven't seen before.” And so, began the journey of Chingum, aimed at making the heart of Mumbai look scary, entertaining, and intriguing at the same time.

He says that the film is terrifying yet hilarious, and there are definitely moments that’ll make you squirm, but there’s no point where it’s not entertaining. And that’s exactly what ‘Genre horror’ is- “an arm of filmmaking that includes films containing offbeat, leftfield things,” says Fadnavis. He adds that it’s also his favourite brand of cinema, because it’s the most honest kind of filmmaking and you’re free to explore everything that you want to express.

The filmmaker has also used Chingum as a political commentary on our society. He feels that with everything that’s happening, “it would be futile to make a movie that doesn't address the real world”, and even more so, when the genre itself has always been reflective of society.

Interestingly, the film sees Mumbai in a completely different light. Though there are some ‘peak Mumbai’ things like the local train, an auto ride late at night, the torrential monsoon rains, and everything that ‘Mumbaikars’ would relate to, there’s also a certain grayness in the film. Fadnavis says, “I decided to give Chingum a film noir treatment and merge it seamlessly with supernatural elements.”

All of this becomes more intriguing because the film is shot completely in black and white, though Fadnavis says that there are “various kinds of black and white looks”. He adds that this led to a kind of “visual bigness and thickness to monochrome that really sucks in a viewer”.

But because of this cinematographic decision, the crew had the freedom to experiment during the pre-production. The film also has almost 100 VFX shots, so a whole lot went into developing special effects.

But the filmmaker’s favourite thing was that he got to get inside the head of his lead actor, which he says might or might not have been fun for Randeep Jha, but Fadnavis definitely had the time of his life.

Fadnavis says that Chingum has given him immense confidence as a filmmaker, and taught him how to captivate his audience. And so, he’s set to share his two hour long feature film, produced by Anurag Kashyap, with the world. He’s currently putting finishing touches on the project.

He has also written some new things that he’s planning to turn into movies, and a coming-of-age dark drama thriller is on the cards too. “All I can say right now is that I really dig the 'mystery box' element of storytelling,” he says. What he looks forward to is pushing more boundaries with horror cinema, and explore its potential to the fullest.

BiFan was held from July 8 to July 18 this year.