Set in the tense social milieu of Ahmedabad, writer-director Aarti Neharsh’s debut feature ‘Kanda’ or ‘No Onion’ uses psychological horror to explore issues of purity, caste and domestic control.
The film has Jouska Films’ Shakun Batra (‘Gehraiyaan’) and Gubbara Entertainment’s Dimpy Agrawal (co-producer ‘Shadowbox’, Bernale 2025 Perspective) on board as co-producers. “No Onions” has been pre-selected as a Sundance development track and is currently in late stage development. With partial financing in place, the filmmakers are seeking co-producers, financiers and distribution partners at WAVES Film Bazaar, a market component of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), with a goal of moving into pre-production in mid-2026.
Neharsh’s screenplay tells the story of a pregnant woman whose desire for food forbidden by her religion begins to disrupt the order and rituals of her pious family. As her desires intensify, long-standing rules of diet, religion, and family begin to crumble, revealing hidden tensions in her seemingly harmonious household.
For Neharsh, this story is deeply personal. Growing up in Ahmedabad, she recalls the quiet but harsh practices of purity woven into everyday life. “I remember my friends sitting apart during lunch and refusing to touch certain tiffins. Even in the most ‘modern’ homes, women were isolated during their periods. Ahmedabad itself, with its segregated markets, tables of “pure vegetables” and invisible social divisions, harbors this obsession with purity. It was only later that I realized how deeply connected it was to caste and social segregation of people,” she says.
With No Onions, she reframes vegetarianism, often understood internationally as an ethical lifestyle, through an Indian lens of caste purity and religious discipline. “No Onions” aspires to be a slow-burning psychological horror that turns the domestic environment of a home into a setting for eerie unraveling, asking what is more frightening: a woman’s hunger or the order that seeks to crush it.
Neharsh sees the film as a genre piece rooted in the rhythms of domestic life. “I’ve always been drawn to genre films, especially Korean horror, because they allow me to deeply explore personal and social ideas within a compelling cinematic framework. That’s what I wanted to do with my debut film.”
Her debut short ‘The Song We Sang’, also set in Ahmedabad, was a film festival success, winning awards at the Los Angeles Indian Film Festival, Dharamshala International Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the London Indian Film Festival. Along with producing his debut feature film, Neharsh is also directing a commercial.
