New Delhi (India), December 25: With the rise in OTT platforms, some regional cinema gems have successfully been able to shine, which otherwise wouldn’t have seen the light of the day.
One such gem is the Marathi suspense horror thriller BALI The Victim, released worldwide on 9th December 2021 on Amazon Prime Video. The film has been receiving accolades for its original premise, brilliant storyline & gripping screenplay.
Credit goes to its young creator & writer Swapnila Gupta, who marks her debut in the world of cinema with Bali. She says, “It’s heartening that both the audiences and critics have welcomed Bali with open arms. I sincerely feel supernatural/fantasy in India needs a new approach and a lot of encouragement. Bali is an original story, and it’s much more than just horror. It has a human story and genuine emotions.”
While Indian mainstream cinema keeps churning out formulaic remakes & mindless sequels over and over, Bali shows us how novel, creative, entertaining, yet socially relevant ideas can change the movie-going experience.
On this question, Swapnila smiles and tells us, “Believe it or not, in this era of globalization & social media, we are competing with the world cinema; it has been proven time and again that there’s no room for the same age-old hero-centric approach anymore. This is the era of the content & talent.”
She further adds that human emotions & moral values are universal, “and if we do it right, there’s no reason why the world wouldn’t be interested in our (Indian) original stories.” Through her maverick approach in the screenplay and the original story, BALI starring Swapnil Joshi has intrigued the audience with its gamut of emotions and immersive experience of suspense & thrills in the cover of supernatural/horror elements.
To develop these fresh, original ideas, Swapnila draws inspiration from her own life experiences and then treat these ideas with supernatural/fantasy elements to build the original stories. But why supernatural? Swapnila breaks into laughter and says, “Because supernatural offers me more room to say what I want to say.”
Swapnila Gupta is a multi-talented young writer who started her career as a Radio Jockey, working with Radio Mirchi, Radio City, followed by working as a Television Anchor & Emcee. After a brief stint in modelling, she has turned to writing.
We wish Swapnila Gupta all the success and look forward to many more such stories & cinema-going experiences.
Vijay Singh
