Pre-Production Begins: Making Akhada of the Dead, a Student Horror Film from SRFTI

There’s a strange madness in trying to make a horror film inside a wrestling arena. A madness I’ve decided to surrender to.

Akhada of the Dead is my final-year diploma film at SRFTI. It's a horror film set in Delhi’s kushti culture where the sweat, pride, and pain of traditional wrestling collide with something darker. Something undead. The journey has just begun. And I want to document it here, raw and honest, not just the wins, but the chaos, doubts, small joys, and sleepless nights of student filmmaking.

🎬 What is Akhada of the Dead?

At its core, it’s a survival story of a young wrestler named Anshul Yadav who’s been broken by life and is forced to confront something horrifying when the dead start rising. It’s gritty, physical, rooted in the earth, and yet it deals with deeper things: guilt, shame, transformation, and suppressed rage.

Imagine the physicality of kushti, the eerie dread of slow-burn horror, and the emotional tension of being stuck between worlds. That’s the vibe.

I’ve never stepped inside a real akhada before working on this film.

I didn’t grow up in Haryana. I wasn’t surrounded by wrestlers or Kushti culture. But I did grow up watching WWE every week, eyes glued to the screen, obsessed with the drama, the grit, the transformation of people into beasts inside the ring.

But that's not why I chose to direct Akhada of the Dead.

The script came to me as part of our final-year diploma project at SRFTI. And what pulled me in wasn’t just the horror, or the setting, or the undead. It was something far more intimate. Something human.

🎭 Why I Chose This Story

At first glance, Akhada of the Dead is a horror film set in Delhi’s wrestling underground — a story of a young wrestler named Anshul Yadav, whose life has collapsed before the beast even shows up.

But what lies underneath is what really drew me in.

It’s a story about a person whose dreams have rusted, whose world has stopped believing in him. It's about that terrifying moment when even you start losing belief in yourself.

And just when the last bit of light inside begins to flicker, something ancient, violent, and primal takes over.

That moment… is why I wanted to make this film.

🎬 What the Film Is

Akhada of the Dead is horror, yes, with prosthetics, blood, and the dead rising where they shouldn't. But for me, it's also a psychological drama about guilt, masculinity, shame, rage, and redemption.

It’s about the quiet rot of being forgotten. And what happens when your worst instincts finally rise to the surface?

🎥 Where We Are Now

We’re deep in pre-production:

• Scouting akhadas in Delhi for locations that feel both alive and haunted

• Casting actors, many of whom need to be physically trained or ex-wrestlers

• Experimenting with prosthetic makeup — the zombie work is intense but crucial

• And trying to make all this happen on a ₹7 lakh budget. No big deal :)

We shoot at the start of September. The pressure is very, very real.

💡 What's Next?

I’ll be honest, this is the biggest project I’ve directed. It's emotionally and logistically exhausting. But it’s also deeply personal, even though I didn’t write the script.

As a director, I’m drawn to characters who are on the edge of madness, of failure, of transformation. Akhada of the Dead gives me all of that plus surreal creatures.

So here I am, trying to shape something dark, human, and hopefully unforgettable.

🧵 Follow the Journey

This blog will document everything: the chaos, the crew, the craft, and the quiet doubts that haunt every indie student filmmaker.

If you're into horror, independent cinema, or just curious about what goes into making a genre film on a tiny budget in India, this is for you.

And if you're a wrestler, an actor, a prosthetic artist, or someone who wants to collaborate, let’s talk.

See you in the next post. Till then, back to scouting… and storyboarding nightmares.

— Siddhartha