‘Masooda’s fear factor comes from eeriness, not jumpscares’

Producer Rahul Yadav and debut writer-director Sai Kiran exude confidence as their Telugu movie ‘Masooda’ gears up for release

The Arabic word Masooda denotes a happy, fortunate or good woman. Writer and first-time director Sai Kiran thought this word would be an apt title for his Telugu film. “Masooda is the name of an intriguing character in our film,” he says. Starring Sangitha, newcomer Bandhavi Sridhar and Thiruveer, Masooda is positioned as a horror drama. Sai Kiran and producer Rahul Yadav, speaking to The Hindu at their office in Manikonda, Hyderabad, term Masooda as a slow burn horror drama where the fear comes from the uneasy, eerie happenings rather than jumpscares. 

The broad storyline, says Sai Kiran, is a familiar one of a family trying to help one of its members who is supposedly possessed. “Sangitha plays a single mother who lives with her daughter and Thiruveer is their neighbour, a bachelor who tries to help them, and is caught in the turn of events.”

The origin of Masooda goes back a few years when Sai was an assistant director. “One of my friends, Gopikrishna, told me about an unusual behaviour he noticed in a girl who lived near his residence. The incidents surrounding this and other reports I had read made me write a fictional drama.”

Sai had worked as an assistant director in Rahul Yadav’s earlier productions — the romance drama Malli Rava directed by Gautam Tinnanuri and comic spy thriller Agent Sai Srinivas Athreya directed by RSJ Swaroop. When Rahul was on the lookout for a story for his third film, Sai pitched the idea of Masooda. The project was finalised in December 2019.

Masooda was filmed in various locations across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh during the pandemic, intermittently over 90 days, more than 50 of which involved all-night shoots. Pre-production and storyboarding ensured that the cast and crew wasted little time on the sets. Extensive discussions also took place with cinematographer Nagesh Banell and music composer Prashanth Vihari. For this film, the team wanted the background score to allow enough room for silence, rather than underlining every motion with music.

Sai and Rahul chanced upon one of Thiruveer’s interviews which they felt reflected his down-to-earth personality as opposed to the rough, grey characters he has often portrayed on screen. They finalised him as the neighbour’s character named after Sai’s real-life friend Gopikrishna. “Sangitha came on board saying she trusted our vision and gave us bulk dates,” says Rahul. 

It has been a while since Telugu cinema witnessed horror dramas; the pre-pandemic years witnessed an overkill of horror comedies. Rahul rates Ram Gopal Varma’s Raat ( Raatri in Telugu) as one of the finest horror dramas. Sai recalls a statement by director Martin Scorsese that even if the horror element in the story is removed, the drama should invoke empathy and fear.