Tokyo-based filmmaker Anshul Chauhan is expanding his independent production company banner Khowatanda Films to India with his first locally produced horror feature ‘Nava’. The project will reunite Chauhan with actress Shweta Tripathi, who will star and produce through her newly formed company Bandaful Films.
Set in the swamps of the Sundarbans, Nava follows Tara Sen as she returns home and becomes embroiled in a multi-generational mystery involving river gods and family secrets. Writer Akash Mohimen has penned the script for the film, which is said to be a culturally-rooted genre piece.
“As an Indian who has lived in Japan for many years, people sometimes think it is unusual for me to make a Japanese film,” said director Chauhan. “Japan, especially Tokyo, has given me everything. It has shaped me as an artist and as a person. But at the end of the day, I am also Indian and a part of me always wanted to tell stories in Hindi.”
The director revealed that it took him three years to enter the Indian market before deciding to establish his own production infrastructure. “There are only a handful of true producers here, the ones who actually know how to get a movie through to the end, how to seek out co-production financing, how to take advantage of grants and incentives, and how to find solutions when private and studio financing doesn’t work out,” he explained.
Kowatanda Film India will be headed by Mr. Chouhan as producer and director, along with producer Mina Moteki and executive producer Sohrab Bozorchami. Bozolchami brings 14 years of line producer experience with projects such as ‘Maidaan’, ‘Chup’ and upcoming films ‘Sumo Didi’, ‘Lala & Poppy’ and ‘Happy Patel’.
Chauhan and Moteki founded Kowatanda Film as an independent studio based in Tokyo. The company has produced Bad Poetry Tokyo, Contra, December and the latest film Tiger, which premiered at the 2025 Busan International Film Festival and had its Indian premiere in Goa at the Japan-focused International Film Festival of India (IFFI). “Tiger” is scheduled to be released in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, with North America and Europe next to be targeted.
Tripathi said this cooperation aims to transcend international boundaries. “‘Nava’ is a film about the complexities of dealing with Bengal’s soil and ancestral past, yet speaks a universal language of unforgettable healing,” she said. “We are excited to work with Kowatanda Films to bring this atmospheric and unforgettable world to audiences around the world.”
A Drishyam Sundance Writers Lab 2015 Fellow, Mohimen has co-written projects such as ‘Rukh’ and the crime series ‘Bhaukaal’. He is also developing a Japanese-language film with Chouhan that is scheduled to shoot in Tokyo next year, as well as another horror project set in Japan.
Bandarful Films is also preparing Mujhe Jaan Na Kaho Meri Jaan, an LGBTQ+ love story co-starring Tillotama Shome and written and directed by Sonjoy Nag. The company is also developing a crime drama and a satire about image maintenance.
Mr. Chauhan moved to Tokyo in 2011 after working as an animator on projects such as the Indian National Film Award-winning “Delhi Safari.” His directorial debut, Bad Poetry Tokyo, won the Grand Prix at the Brussels International Film Festival, and Contra won the Grand Prix and Obayashi Prize at the 2020 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. “December” premiered in Busan in 2021 and was released theatrically in five regions.
The director is repped by CAA and Range Media Partners, with production planned across the U.S. and Asia.
