A black leopard is probably not the worst thing you can find in a remote Bengali village, although Shanaya has no idea of that when she arrives in Ghun Gaon – the wildlife photographer has travelled alone to the isolated village hoping to photograph the rare animal, before strange events in the surrounding jungle and secrets among the villagers push her into a fight for survival – and judging by what the filmmakers have said about the movie, that black leopard is almost the bait – the real danger comes from somewhere else.
The movie was shot in Chimney in Kalimpong, and the filmmakers have talked about the landscape as an important part of the film, with the mist, mountains and isolation helping create the confusion around what is actually happening – Anindita Bose has also described the shoot as a particularly close-knit production because the crew was relatively small.
Soumya Roy Choudhury Has Been Sitting on This for Years
Director Roy Choudhury originally took the script to Anindita Bose in 2020, when Ghun Gaon was being developed as a web series, but the project eventually changed into a feature film, and when the director went back to Bose five years later, she agreed to join.
And Choudhury has also been unusually open about what he wants this movie to be, as rather than describing Ghun Gaon simply as horror, he calls it a dark thriller, and specifically talks about darkness existing inside people, society and individual characters as well as in the animal world.
Anindita Bose plays Shanaya, where her IMDb credits include the Bengali series Gaaner Oparey from the beginning of her television career, along with Hindi projects including Paatal Lok, Skyfire and Thinkistan she was originally approached for Ghun Gaon when it was still intended as a series, too.
Her co-star Ranojoy Bishnu plays Rishi, and he has been working in the Bengali and Hindi industries for more than a decade, with credits including Vidhan, Jaalbandi, Guddi, Bonbibi and Raas (Finding Your Roots), and Bishnu said Rishi was unlike anything he had played during his roughly 20 years in the industry and that the character has the sort of different shades actors actually look for.
The rest of the cast includes Subha Biswas as Ika, Rohini Chatterjee as Disha, Sritama Dey as Mohini, Sankar Debnath as Dada and Soumya Majumdar as Pravaan.
The Music Has a Rather Unexpected Name Attached to It
The soundtrack gives Ghun Gaon another connection that you probably wouldn’t expect from the basic horror premise – Sunidhi Chauhan sings Tun Tun Tunak Tun, the music is by Tunai Debasish Ganguly, with lyrics by Pramit Ghosh, and the soundtrack also features Timir Biswas, Sayantani Ghosh and Srishti Rawani.
Roy Choudhury has said in interviews that the Sunidhi connection came through Ganguly after an item song was added to the film – Ganguly apparently decided it was a Sunidhi song, sent her a scratch version and got her involved within three days, and the song is performed on screen by Sritama Dey, while the main cast also feature in the sequence.
Behind the camera, Tuhin Saha handled cinematography, Samman Roy edited the movie, Pradyut Chatterjea worked on the background score and Aneesh Basu handled sound design – the film was produced by Hira Lal Rawani, Aman Chourashiya and Partha Sarkar for Cine Krazy Entertainments.
Roy Choudhury also isn’t treating Ghun Gaon as a standalone horror movie, because he has explicitly said this is Chapter 1 and that two more chapters are planned, with the intention of building a larger fictional universe around the characters and mysteries introduced here.
Early Reviews Seem Positive
The reception is still very early, but BookMyShow currently shows 0/10 in one early rating snapshot from 210+ reviews, with some reviewers praising the film’s second half and final 40 minutes, highlighting its risk-taking screenplay and dark atmosphere despite some pacing flaws.
There is also mentionscirculating that praises the film’s psychological approach and performances, particularly Ranojoy Bishnu, Subha Biswas and Anindita Bose, while acknowledging that the movie has imperfections – IMDb doesn’t currently have enough user reviews to provide a useful rating either, while Letterboxd also has very little indexed activity around the film at the moment.
The early theatrical numbers are similarly modest. Box-office trackers are currently putting the film somewhere around ₹0.06–₹0.10 crore in India, depending on the tracker and update time, and those figures are estimates rather than an official producer statement – Sacnilk lists around ₹0.06 crore right now.
The theatrical footprint has also been relatively limited – BoxOffice India24 was tracking 12 theatres across three cities on September 17, with reported occupancy of 13.7% that day, with the film still running as of writing.
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