While horror has never been a widely experimented genre in Ollywood, there have been rare ones like ‘Kandhei Akhire Luha’, ‘Lal Tuk Tuk Sadhaba Bohu’ or ‘Tate Mo Rana’, which have met with moderate success at the box office. Apprehensive if a horror flick would work or not, only a few filmmakers are enthusiastic to work in this domain. But there’s good news for Odia cine fans looking for a dose of horror. The makers of Odisha's first 3D horror movie ‘Kaunri Kanya’, are now are ready with their second film, ‘Rahasya- The Mystery Within’, a horror-comedy-thriller to be released soon this month. 

They further claim to have used advanced technology like VFX and SFX, and special inputs in cinematography to heighten the thriller experience for the audience.

Produced under the banner ‘Angel Bee Media’, the film will see actor Kavya Kiran of ‘Kaunri Kanya’ playing double roles – one as a royal princess named Indumati and the other as Shruti, a young college girl.

Talking to MCL about her idea of working in horror films, Kavya, who has also made her Bollywood debut, says, “The script and the character are what I look at while deciding on a film. I not concerned about what genre the movie comes in. I want to do things that no one else tries.”

Tusar, who makes his debut as an actor with this film is playing the male lead. “The story revolves around a mystery surrounding my past and a present mystery,” he says as he tries not to divulge much about the plot.

Bighneshwar Panda, who plays a negative role in this film, which is also his directorial debut, tells MCL, “The main part of the movie is its VFX, which spans almost half of the movie. Being a theatre artist, I always prefer to give more opportunities to theatre artists. So, with so many actors from theatre background in the film, I’m sure the audience will have no complaints in the acting department.”

Eventually, making a horror thriller in an industry like Ollywood is a risky proposition. Nevertheless, producers Santanu Kumar Sia and Narayan Sahu feel making an experimental film will attract the younger audience more to the theatres. “We are a young team and we are hopeful that youngsters will relate to our work more easily. We have tried to show three periods in time marked by the years 1917, 1970 and 2017,” they inform.

Santanu has also sung three songs for the movie and composed all the songs with his friend Nihar.

The shooting of the film has been done in some beautiful locations in Odisha like Narsinghpur, Gopalpur, Berhampur, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and in some parts of Chhattisgarh. A team of 29 professional technicians from Bollywood and Tollywood under the guidance of film maker Soumya Ranjan Sahu, Anurag Vineel and Tushar Sinha, have worked in the pre and post productions of the movie.

The makers plan to release the film in maximum number of theatres across Odisha later this month. The team is also planning to release the movie  in two other cities, Surat and Banglore to reach out to the Odia audience there.