Actor-producer duo Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal have boarded the upcoming feature Secrets of a Mountain Serpent as producers under their banner, Pushing Buttons Studios. The film is slated to make its world premiere at the prestigious 2025 Venice Film Festival, as reported by Variety.
Directed by Nidhi Saxxena, the film received support from Venice’s Biennale College Fund. Saxxena previously made waves with Sad Letters of an Imaginary Woman, which premiered at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival.
Set in a remote Himalayan town in the 1990s, Secrets of a Mountain Serpent follows Barkha (Trimala Adhikari), a schoolteacher whose husband is posted at the border. In a world marked by absence and silence, her quiet existence is disrupted by the arrival of Manik Guho (Adil Hussain), a mysterious outsider who stirs myth, memory, and emotion in the secluded community.
The project is co-produced with Forest Flower Films, the banner led by Cannes Camera d’Or winner Vimukthi Jayasundara.
Speaking about the project, Chadha and Fazal told Variety, “We were immediately drawn to Nidhi’s lyrical vision. This is a story rooted in myth and yet is startlingly relevant today. At PBS, we believe in backing storytellers who take creative risks, and Nidhi has crafted something singular, poetic, and soulful.”
The film has completed production and is currently in post, gearing up for its Venice debut.
This marks another bold move for Chadha and Fazal’s production house, which previously backed Girls Will Be Girls, directed by Shuchi Talati. The coming-of-age drama, starring Preeti Panigrahi, Kani Kusruti, and Kesav Binoy Kiron, garnered critical acclaim and won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival for its fresh exploration of teenage female desire and autonomy.
