Yash Raj Films has cast Varun Dhawan as the lead of its first horror film and set it for a worldwide cinema release on Friday 31 March 2028. The Mumbai studio confirmed the project on its website on Saturday 14 November, a few hours after Pinkvilla reported it. Abhay Pannu, who directed both seasons of the SonyLIV drama Rocket Boys, has written the screenplay and will direct. The film has no title yet.
Key facts
- Studio: Yash Raj Films (YRF), Mumbai; its first horror feature for cinemas
- Lead: Varun Dhawan, in his second film for the studio after Sui Dhaaga: Made in India (2018)
- Writer and director: Abhay Pannu, in his first feature for cinemas
- Producer: YRF chief executive Akshaye Widhani, with Aditya Chopra guiding development
- Release: worldwide on 31 March 2028; title, supporting cast, budget and shoot dates not announced
A new genre for a 56-year-old studio
YRF has been making Hindi films since Yash Chopra founded it in 1970, and the genre map of its catalogue is clear. Romance made its name, from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge onwards; action franchises such as Dhoom and Tiger followed under his son Aditya Chopra. The company’s own statement lists romance, action, drama, comedy and thrillers, and says the new project marks its formal entry into “theatrical horror”, promising “YRF’s signature scale” in a film “designed for the big screen”.
The producer credit goes to Widhani, YRF’s chief executive, with Chopra, who heads the studio, guiding development. On Beparwah, the Ahaan Panday and Sharvari romantic action drama directed by Ali Abbas Zafar that YRF titled on 26 October, Chopra took the producer credit himself.
The director and the star
Pannu directed all 16 episodes of Rocket Boys (2022–23), the series about the physicists Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai and the birth of India’s nuclear and space programmes, and co-wrote it with Kausar Munir. YRF calls the hire part of its commitment to “championing disruptive new voices”. It is a bet on a director whose screen work so far is a period drama for streaming, now handed a genre that lives or dies on mechanics.
Dhawan comes with a supernatural hit behind him. He led Amar Kaushik’s Bhediya (2022), the werewolf comedy in Maddock Films’ horror-comedy universe, opposite Kriti Sanon. His only previous YRF film was Sui Dhaaga: Made in India, Sharat Katariya’s comedy drama with Anushka Sharma. The new film is billed as horror, not horror comedy, which puts clear water between it and the Maddock formula.
A date 16 months out
The announcement carries a date and little else. The 31 March 2028 slot is 503 days away, more than nine months after the 18 June 2027 release that Birla Studios set this month for Kartik Aaryan’s Ladaku. YRF has not said when filming starts, who else is in the cast or what the film will cost.
Studios are claiming dates early in a market that is growing. Indian cinemas took a record ₹4,443 crore ($464m) in July–September, according to PVR INOX, and overseas rights on the biggest titles now sell well before release, as with Shah Rukh Khan’s King.
Our reading
The logic for YRF is plain. Horror and horror comedy have become one of the most reliable genres in Hindi cinema, and YRF has so far left that business to rivals, Maddock above all. Casting a star who has already carried a creature film lowers the risk of a first attempt. Handing it to a first-time feature director raises it again, though it also keeps the cost of talent down and gives the studio a new name to build.
A date this far out is a claim on the calendar more than a production schedule. The next evidence will be the title, the supporting cast and a shoot start. Until then, distributors and exhibitors have a slot to pencil in and little to price. More on the studio is in our Yash Raj Films coverage.
Sources
- Yash Raj Films, Varun Dhawan to headline Yash Raj Films’ first-ever horror film; theatrical release set for 31 March 2028, 14 November 2026
- Pinkvilla, Varun Dhawan to lead YRF’s maiden horror film; theatrical release scheduled for March 31, 2028, 14 November 2026
- Bollywood Hungama, Varun Dhawan to star in Yash Raj Films’ first-ever horror film, 14 November 2026
- Sacnilk, Varun Dhawan to headline Yash Raj Films’ first horror film, 14 November 2026
- Wikipedia, Rocket Boys (TV series): episode credits, seasons 1 and 2
- Wikipedia, Bhediya (2022)
- Yash Raj Films, title announcement for Beparwah, 26 October 2026