In the world of cinema, some films are born easily—written, shot, and released within a few years. Others take longer, slowly growing in the shadows until they are ready to emerge.
The film Tumbbad belongs to the second kind.
It did not simply get made.
It survived its way into existence.
For over two decades, the film lingered in development—rewritten, abandoned, revived, and nearly lost. What finally reached audiences in 2018 was not just a movie but the result of obsession, persistence, and an almost mythological struggle that mirrored the film’s own theme: human greed and the price of desire.
This is the story of how Tumbbad itself became a legend.
The Seed of a Story (Late 1990s)
The journey began in the late 1990s.
Writer Mitesh Shah and filmmaker Anand Gandhi were fascinated by forgotten Indian folklore—stories that existed somewhere between myth, horror, and morality tales.
One story stayed with them.
A cursed village.
A forgotten god.
A treasure that should never be touched.
The legend revolved around Hastar, a mythological being rejected by the goddess of prosperity. The creature was not entirely evil—but it represented unchecked greed.
They imagined a story where a man repeatedly returns to the womb of a cursed god to steal gold.
It was eerie.
Original.
Unlike anything in Indian cinema.
But the problem was obvious.
No one wanted to finance it.
A Film Too Strange for Bollywood
At the time, Indian mainstream cinema rarely touched folk horror. Producers preferred predictable formulas:
Romance Comedy Family drama Action
Tumbbad was something else entirely:
Dark mythology Period setting Slow psychological horror Heavy symbolism
For producers, it sounded like a guaranteed financial loss.
The script circulated quietly for years.
Doors closed.
Meetings ended politely.
Nothing moved forward.
The idea refused to die—but it had nowhere to go.
The First Attempt (2008)
Nearly a decade later, the project finally found momentum.
Actor-producer Sohum Shah became fascinated with the script and decided to back the film himself. He would eventually also play the main character, Vinayak Rao.
Shooting began around 2008.
But very quickly, something felt wrong.
The footage looked incomplete.
The tone wasn’t working.
The vision of the film was unclear.
Instead of forcing the film forward, the team made a brutal decision:
They scrapped the entire shoot.
Months of work.
Gone.
For most productions, that would have been the end.
But for Tumbbad, it was only the beginning.
Rewriting the Film from Scratch
The creators returned to the script.
They rewrote it again and again.
The story was refined into three time periods:
1918 1933 1947
Each era would show how greed evolves and spreads across generations.
New filmmakers joined the project, including director Rahi Anil Barve, whose dark visual imagination reshaped the film’s tone.
Later, Adesh Prasad also contributed to directing.
The team studied:
Maharashtrian architecture Colonial-era rural life Forgotten folklore Traditional rituals
The goal was clear:
Make the film feel like a forgotten myth discovered in the rain-soaked past.
The Impossible Rain
One of the film’s defining features is constant rain.
Nearly every scene in Tumbbad appears drenched in monsoon.
But this created a huge production problem.
Real rain is unpredictable.
Artificial rain is expensive.
The crew had to shoot during actual monsoon seasons in Maharashtra.
Which meant:
Delayed schedules Mud-filled sets Equipment damage Crew exhaustion
The village set itself had to be built carefully so that rainwater would flow realistically through the streets.
The cinematography—led by Pankaj Kumar—used darkness, lantern light, and shadows to make the film feel ancient and unsettling.
The atmosphere became one of the movie’s greatest achievements.
But it took years to capture.
The Creature That Almost Didn’t Work
Then there was Hastar.
Creating the creature was another massive challenge.
The filmmakers wanted something that felt:
Mythological Disturbing Not obviously CGI
Many designs failed.
Early versions looked too artificial or too familiar.
Eventually the team developed a mix of:
Practical prosthetics Performance acting Minimal digital effects
The result was terrifying precisely because you never fully see the creature.
It lurks in darkness, hunger, and whispers.
Years of Uncertainty
Production stretched endlessly.
Money ran low.
Schedules collapsed.
The film kept evolving.
At times, it seemed the project might never be finished.
The movie had already taken Over a decade of development Multiple rewrites Abandoned shoots Technical experiments
Many filmmakers would have given up.
But the team believed they were making something India had never seen before.
So they kept going.
The Resurrection at Film Festivals
Finally, after years of work, the film was completed.
In 2018, Tumbbad premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
For the first time, international audiences saw the film.
The response was immediate.
Critics praised Its haunting visuals Unique mythology Atmospheric horror Philosophical themes
Suddenly, the film that nobody wanted to fund was being celebrated globally.
From Struggle to Cult Classic
When Tumbbad released in India in 2018, it was not a massive box-office blockbuster.
But something unusual happened.
The film kept growing.
Word of mouth spread.
Film lovers rediscovered it.
Streaming platforms gave it a second life.
Today, Tumbbad is widely regarded as One of the best Indian horror films ever made A landmark in Indian folk horror cinema
The Strange Parallel
Perhaps the most poetic part of the story is this: Tumbbad is a film about a man obsessed with treasure, repeatedly risking everything to obtain it.
The filmmakers themselves spent 21 years chasing their own treasure—a story they believed deserved to exist.
Like the cursed gold in the film, the movie demanded a price – Time Money Careers Endless patience
But unlike the character in the story, the creators were rewarded.
They didn’t unleash a curse.
They created a legend.
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