Venice, Italy – July 24, 2025 – Renowned Bollywood couple Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal, through their production banner ‘Pushing Button Studios,’ have boarded “Secrets of a Mountain Serpent” as producers. The highly anticipated film is slated to make its world premiere at the prestigious 2025 Venice Film Festival, as reported by Variety.
The film is helmed by director Nidhi Saxxena, a recipient of Venice’s Biennale College Fund grant for this very project. Saxxena is no stranger to the international festival circuit, having previously directed “Sad Letters of an Imaginary Woman,” which premiered at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival.
“Secrets of a Mountain Serpent” is a collaborative effort, co-produced with Forest Flower Films, the banner led by Cannes Camera d’Or winner Vimukthi Jayasundara.
Set in the remote Himalayan region during the 1990s, this intimate drama delves into the life of Barkha (Trimala Adhikari), a school teacher whose husband is stationed at the border. In an environment where male presence is scarce and silence pervades daily existence, Barkha finds herself drawn to Manik Guho (Adil Hussain), an enigmatic outsider whose arrival disrupts the delicate balance of anticipation, restraint, and local folklore.
Expressing their enthusiasm for the project, Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal stated, as quoted by 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.”
According to Variety, production on “Secrets of a Mountain Serpent” has concluded, and the film is currently in post-production, preparing for its grand debut at the Venice Film Festival.
This is not the first foray into championing independent cinema for Chadha and Fazal’s Pushing Button Studios. Their banner previously produced “Girls Will Be Girls,” directed by Shuchi Talati, which garnered significant acclaim and won two awards at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. That film, starring Preeti Panigrahi, Kani Kusurti, and Kesav Binoy Kiron, was widely praised by critics for its innovative and honest exploration of female teenage sexual awakenings.