This article looks at WENCH, India’s only dedicated festival for horror, science fiction, and fantasy, founded by filmmaker Sapna Moti Bhavnani. and its ongoing monthly screening series Cinéma de l’Étrange. The initiative extends the festival’s mission to centre women, queer, and non-binary filmmakers using horror as an exploration of identity. The next screening in the series takes place at 6 PM at Alliance Française, Churchgate.
For decades, Indian horror lived in the shadows — a genre defined by flickering candles, haunted mansions, women in white, and the blood-splattered excesses of the Ramsay Brothers. It was pulp at its purest: ghosts, gore, and guttural screams stitched together for midnight audiences. But as Indian cinema began to experiment with tone and perspective, horror followed suit. A new generation of filmmakers turned inward, using the supernatural to examine the anxieties of gender, class, grief, and violence. From the eco-horror of 'Tumbbad' to the subversive feminist explorations of 'Khauf' of and 'Bulbbul', Indian horror has become more personal, more political, and, crucially, more plural.
It’s within this evolution that WENCH, India’s dedicated festival for horror, science fiction, and fantasy, has carved out its space. Founded and directed by filmmaker Sapna Moti Bhavnani, Wench began in 2021 as an online showcase for womxn-led fantastic cinema, and has since expanded into a multi-day, multi-city festival that foregrounds LGBTQIA+ women, BIWOC, and non-binary filmmakers while building industry infrastructure — markets, masterclasses, and a small-press devoted to genre writing.
The festival’s mission is to reframe who gets to tell speculative stories in India and to give those storytellers the practical tools to reach audiences. That work takes shape across screenings, panels, and 'Pitch It Till You Make It' — a project market that has become Wench’s most consequential intervention in the domestic genre ecosystem.
The 2025 edition, held earlier this year from February 27 to March 2, marked WENCH’s most ambitious outing yet — with 42 films screened across Mumbai and Kolkata. The programme opened with the India premiere of 'The Eye' (featuring Shruti Haasan) and closed with 'Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust', alongside industry talks, a project market, and the launch of Terror Talkies, its print publication dedicated to fantastic cinema.
Now, the festival’s momentum continues through its monthly screenings under the banner 'Cinéma de l’Étrange'. These gatherings offer an intimate space where women and queer creators use horror as a language to explore pain, transformation, and reclamation. The October edition — a Halloween special at Harkat Studios, Mumbai — celebrated the strange and the subversive. The next instalment, happening on 12 November at 6 PM at Alliance Française, in Churchgate, Mumbai, invites audiences to experience free screenings that blend community, genre experimentation, and collective healing through horror.
In reclaiming a word once used to shame women, WENCH transforms horror into a medium of defiance. The monthly Cinéma de l’Étrange screenings carry that spirit forward to foster a space where women and queer filmmakers can experiment with genre to assert their own gaze and instead of merely reproducing fear, rework it into a tool of commentary and creation.
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