Watched Andhera. The metaphysical crawl of devilry that’s been witnessed still shoots with spook. Horror comes with an irony, and the irony that the panel discussion drew was a positive one—Indian horror finally coming to light. Threading the thoughts around Andhera; it’s to start by calling it ‘horror renaissance.’
For years, horror in India was dismissed as campy, cheap, or simply not worth taking seriously. In a wide-ranging discussion around Andhera, now streaming on Prime Video, Salil Acharya, Actor/RJ, Vice President, Radiocity 91.1, dived into what makes horror so deceptively complex—and why India might finally be ready to give the genre its due.
At the panel discussion, Andhera’s creative team came together to explore the secrets behind their success in the horror genre. Actor and RJ Salil Acharya, joined by actor Karanvir Malhotra, creator Gaurav Desai, and director Raaghav Dar, shared insights on storytelling, collaboration, and the challenges of making horror for digital platforms. Their conversation shed light on how Andhera is helping redefine Indian horror for today’s streaming audience.
Horror Remains The Hardest Genre To Get Right
Fear, at its core, is universal. A creaking door, a shadow moving in the dark, the silence that grows a little too long—these elements don’t need translation. Yet, creating effective horror isn’t about stacking clichés and turning off the lights.
Horror, while haunting, remains delicate. Exposes everything. Fake fear can be pointed out. The audience is smart. Weak writing, lazy direction, and bad acting all get ‘pinned’ in horror. It’s why the genre demands such tight control. A scene meant to unsettle can so easily slide into unintentional comedy. An actor’s overreaction can pull viewers out of the moment. Horror, more than any other genre, lives and dies by its tone—and tone, as it turns out, is brutally hard to maintain.
Andhera: When The Real Monsters Are Inside Us—Nurturing Psychological Themes
Andhera, it’s not really about ghosts. It’s about what lives quietly inside us—grief, anxiety, the kind of sadness that doesn’t always have a name. That’s what makes it hit different. Acharya said it best: they didn’t want to just show fear, they wanted us to feel it. And you do. The scariest part isn’t the supernatural—it’s how familiar the darkness feels. The characters aren’t just being followed by spirits; they’re being followed by their own thoughts.
It’s a bold, thoughtful choice. Horror has always reflected the times—war, disease, collective panic. But Andhera brings it closer. More personal. Less about what’s out there, more about what’s in here. It doesn’t jump out at you. It sits with you.
Not Just What You See—What You Hear
Sound in Andhera is not only there to terrify you, but also to walk you through the terror, and to sometimes release your hand at the worst moment. It is in the smaller things – a distant knock, a breath that should not be there, a kind of silence that makes your ears ring. Nothing is coincidental, and while the sound does not scream, it waits.
And for those watching on their phones, wrapped up in their bed or on a dark train ride home, that sound is all the more important. The screen may be small but the fear still finds its way in – through the headphones, through the silence. In Andhera, it is not only what you hear it is what you feel the implication of hearing.
The Horror Of The Small Screen
Digital streaming has busted through doors that were typically held shut by traditional cinema, specifically horror. With far fewer gatekeepers and a more explorative audience, there is now a case for daring and unique stories that struggled to find a screen.
We’ve entered into an OTT age—a period of experimentation that has allowed creators to take more risks, probe further, and have more aspirational visions, both in production and narrative. What’s the outcome? Horror that is increasingly intelligent, articulate and most importantly, getting recognition in Indian entertainment.
Fear Doesn’t Need A Big Budget—It Needs A Clear Vision
Horror has never been about how much money you can spend. Some of the world’s most terrifying films have been made on a shoe-string budget. All it takes to terrify your audience is a sharp idea, a tight script, and clever execution.
Indian creators understand this as well as anyone. Budgets may be limited, however, preparation is most important: understanding the story you want to tell, building tension with purpose and embracing tools at your disposal (sound, light, silence). The truth is in horror it’s not the size of the film that is terrifying you, it’s the clarity of the fear.
Creative Consistency Is Always A Test
All horror storytelling is an ongoing exercise in sustaining tone, mood, and pacing. The authors of “Andhera” acknowledged this ongoing awareness through shooting, and especially in post-production, to preserve the atmospheric tension throughout the project, underscoring the challenges of the genre, which can be more difficult than working with a more straightforward narrative form.
A New Era for Horror: Creating Scary Experiences For The Digital Age
The historical trajectory of horror, clearly exemplified by Western successes like World War Z and Paranormal Activity, is dwarfed by Indian cinema—until now. Andhera is indicative of how Indian horror is catching up, stemming from deliberate collaboration among creators, writers, directors, performers, producers and all members of a technical crew including VFX, post-production, and sound. With horror shifting from theatrical distribution to OTT, horror has been redefined not only in how it is made, but also how it is consumed, with the emphasis on stories for shorter viewing attention spans and fragmented viewing. Whether actors have crossed over to streaming or just more of them are joining platforms that allow various avenues for creative inspiration, it remains that there is no wrong approach as long as all have a powerful story at the heart with thoughtful storytelling.
This dialogue emphasised the nuance that comes with Indian horror and what promises to lie ahead for the genre, showing that with imagination and collaboration, horror has power with a new voice now.
