After five years of development, Indian folk horror film Bokshi was shot over 80 days across remote Himalayan locations in Sikkim, West Bengal, and Assam.
It features dialogue in Boksirit — a fully developed fictional language created for the film by Dutch linguist Jan van Steenbergen — along with Hindi, English, and Nepali.
The film follows Anahita, a troubled teen who finds solace in Shalini, a mysterious history teacher leading a trek to an ancient site called The Navel. The school excursion takes a dark turn as connections emerge between the site and a cult worshiping Bokshi, a feared folkloric demoness.
Variety writes, “Bokshi, which translates to ‘witch’ in Nepali, has undergone significant creative evolution since its January 2025 world premiere in International Film Festival Rotterdam‘s Harbour section. Following IFFR, the film was recut into a leaner version focusing on eroticism with a sense of dread, in the vein of Robert Eggers’ work.”
Bhargav Saikia makes his feature directorial debut and produces via his Mumbai-based Lorien Motion Pictures. Mansi Multani and Prasanna Bisht star. Harsh Vaibhav penned the script.
“At its core, it is a cautionary tale that sheds light on universal and socially relevant themes of women empowerment and humanity’s relation with Mother Earth,” Saikia told Variety. “The film attempts to subvert the negative idea of the witch prevalent in society and presents it as a symbol of empowerment of the female.”
There are no North American release details to report at this time, but we’ll keep you posted.
