Indian filmmakers Anurag Kashyap and Vasan Bala have come on board to present “Aakhri Ride,” a short thriller set over a single Halloween night in Mumbai, which will release worldwide on Oct. 31.
The film will go out on Oh Short Flips, a YouTube channel curated by Kashyap.
Vijesh Rajan and Yashoda Parthasarthy wrote and directed the short, their first film. It follows a Mumbai ride-share driver who is driven to breaking point during one frightening night.
Kashyap said he had worked with the pair since the “Gangs of Wasseypur” days and “always believed they are excellent storytellers with a unique visual language. So when they finally decided to turn writer-directors, it was an easy decision to back them. And now, I am quite excited to see the audience’s response to their first film – ‘Aakhri Ride,’ when it releases on Halloween Day.”
Chandan Roy (“Panchayat”) and Aamir Dalvi (“Kennedy”) head the cast, and Faisal Malik (“Panchayat”) also appears. Ranjan Singh, Vishesh Agrawal, Rajan EPK and Kashyap produced, with Navaras Pictures backing the project in association with Plexus Motion Pictures and Flip Films.
Bala described Rajan as the “Wiz Kid” that filmmaker Srinivas had introduced him and his colleagues to. “We were always in awe of what he could do with his VFX skills but there was always a sensitive and fun storyteller in him. When he and Yashoda went to make the film, we all rooted for them. I was beyond excited to watch their short film. It’s sharp, fun, quirky and with a beating heart. So coming on board was a nano second decision, a no brainer,” Bala said.
The directors traced the idea back to long taxi rides home after meetings around the city. “We’d be sitting in the back seat, talking about work or sitting in silence, while the driver was often carrying a completely different world on his phone: family back home, money worries, things we may never fully know. We began to notice an invisible social divide: we were enjoying the comfort of being driven home, while he was trying to make ends meet. We shared a small space, but knew so little about each other’s lives,” they said.
The pair set out to examine that gap through a mix of horror and comedy, built around a man so weighed down by daily problems that he fails to see what he has picked up. “We hope viewers laugh, get spooked, and maybe think a little about the person driving them home,” they said.
The film began its festival run in the Short Film Market Picks at Clermont-Ferrand, then landed selections at three genre events: BIFAN in Bucheon, Fantasia International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest. Its circuit, which includes Oscar- and BAFTA-qualifying festivals, also took in Florida Film Festival, Austin After Dark, Wench, Fantaspoa, events in Rhode Island and San Jose, Italy’s Absurd Film Festival, France’s Red Movie Awards, Cannes Indie Shorts and New York Indie Shorts Awards.
At Fantasia, the short won the Silver Audience Award for best Asian short. It also picked up best film at the Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival and best Indian short at the Indo Dubai International Film Festival, and finished as second runner-up at BISFF.