Platoon One Films Unveils India Horror Screenwriting Lab to Push Genre Past Ghosts and Hybrids
Platoon One Films has launched a three-month screenwriting lab in India aimed at steering the nation's horror cinema away from ghost stories and comedy hybrids. The initiative will mentor 15 writers on original genre storytelling, with outcomes poised to influence regional and global horror industry trajectories.
- Platoon One Films launches a three-month screenwriting lab in India to redirect horror away from ghost stories and comedy hybrids.
- The program will mentor 15 writers on original genre storytelling, with output targeted for festival and market exposure.
- The initiative signals a potential industry shift toward structurally innovative Indian horror, moving beyond established formulaic tropes.
Platoon One Films has unveiled a new screenwriting lab in India dedicated to redefining the nation's horror cinema, moving beyond entrenched ghost stories and horror-comedy hybrids. The three-month initiative will mentor 15 emerging and established writers in original genre storytelling, the production company announced exclusively with Variety.
The initiative arrives at a pivotal moment for Indian horror, a sector long dominated by supernatural folklore adaptations and broad comedic hybrids that have dominated box offices for decades. While films like Tumbbad and Pizza have begun pushing formal boundaries, the majority of mainstream releases still lean on spectral tropes and slapstick relief, a pattern industry insiders say has limited the genre's global competitiveness and artistic evolution.
According to the Variety exclusive, Platoon One Films emphasized the lab's mission to cultivate narrative risk-taking. "We want to move Indian horror forward—not just as entertainment, but as a serious cinematic language," said a spokesperson for the outfit. Selected writers echoed the sentiment, noting the program's rare focus on structural innovation and cross-genre experimentation over safe, formulaic plots.
