When West Bengal-based indie filmmaker Junayed Alavi began making short films at the age of 13, little did he know that his work would lead to an unexpected collaboration with Japanese director Ken Ochiai on a horror anthology he describes as “unlike anything done in Bengali cinema before”.
Ochiai is the filmmaker behind Vietnamese blockbusters like Saigon Bodyguards and Daddy Issues. Alavi’s next project, Terror Tales, will be produced by the Japanese filmmaker.
Terror Tales explores Bengal’s rich folklore and urban legends, reimagining supernatural entities like the “Daini” and “Nishir Dak” in modern settings, said Alavi, a Rampurhat resident who has made 30 short films in the past 11 years.
Ochiai insisted on shooting the entire film in Bengali and in various locations in Birbhum, away from the hustle-and-bustle of Kolkata.
“I grew up listening to stories of Bengali legends, folklore from my grandparents. So, I incorporated them but with some modern twist. Each story will deal with different social and psychological issues — farming sector issues, child abuse, loneliness, guilt,” Alavi said during a candid chat with The Telegraph Online.
Alavi, 26, wanted to create a Bengali film series inspired from South Korean anthology horror films, he said.
His 2023 horror short Hunger, backed by Marvel’s Moon Knight and Werewolf By Night producer Peter Cameron, was screened at Festival del Cinema di Cefalu in Italy that year.
Alavi has known Ochiai since 2021 when he hosted the latter on his YouTube podcast, Late Nights With Alavi. “I used to show him (Ochiai) my short films and he was very much impressed by the works. We have been sewing the idea of Terror Tales since 2024. And as he agreed to produce the anthology, we started our production in April 2024. He visited Rampurhat in December 2024 to oversee the shooting,” Alavi said.
Ochiai and Alavi struck Shah Rukh Khan's iconic arms-stretched-out pose at an event in Rampurhat
Alavi’s path to this collaboration was anything but conventional. Raised in a lower middle-class Bengali Muslim family, the budding filmmaker faced several societal pressures.
Despite being the subject of laughter and mockery from his school mates and teachers, Alavi held onto his ambition of becoming a filmmaker, drawing inspiration from Hollywood director Steven Spielberg.
“As I grew older, my family insisted that I pursue engineering, dismissing my Hollywood dream as invalid,” he recalled. Yet his perseverance led him to skip classes and create short films that caught the attention of industry experts, eventually securing a job offer in a Hollywood literary agency called Coverfly.
The making of Terror Tales came with its challenges as they filmed in Rampurhat on a limited budget. Yet, this rawness lends the anthology an authenticity often missing in mainstream horror, Alavi said.
The anthology features Bengali actress Manasi Sinha and Maidaan star Aryann Bhowmik in key roles. Anirban Guha, Swati Mukherjee and theatre actors like Swagatam Halder, Anirban Sarkar and Kalyan Goswami will also feature in the shorts.
The film series, which is set to travel the festival circuit before a theatrical release, has already garnered attention, with one of its shorts featuring Manasi Sinha being selected for a screening at this year’s International Kolkata Short Film Festival.
For Alavi, who is also set to release his first debut feature film Sapiens, Terror Tales is not just an anthology — it’s a statement. “It’s experimental yet traditional in nature,” he said.
