From Naagins To Werewolves: How Indian Cinema’s Movie Monsters Evolved

Written By: Entertainment Desk

Oct 25, 2026 12:44 IST ⓘ

How Indian cinema reinvented its movie monsters.

A snake could remember your face, a bride could disappear into the clutches of a hairy beast, and a perfectly ordinary man could become something with very different dietary requirements after dark. Indian cinema has never needed much encouragement to let a creature loose. What has changed is the invitation extended to the audience: scream at it, dance with it, laugh at it — or cheer when it saves the day.

The fascination is finding fresh industry backing. An recent Pinkvilla report said Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions was developing a large-scale creature film with mythological undertones and a creature comedy, with filming targeted for the end of 2026. One was reportedly attached to director Sandeep Modi. These remain reported development plans, but they offer a timely reason to revisit a screen tradition much older than today’s cinematic universes.

For this journey, the creatures include shape-shifters, zombies, blood-drinkers and visibly embodied beings from folklore. Some are terrifying; others are friendly or heroic. Their screen versions also need to be distinguished from the many beliefs and traditions inspiring them. Across the following films, technology changes, but so does the creature’s job: avenging a lover, exposing human greed, protecting a forest or anchoring an expanding franchise.

Here is that evolution through 20 films, in order of their theatrical releases:

1. Nagin (1976)

Before the modern universe-building began, one furious snake woman could keep an entire ensemble occupied. Rajkumar Kohli’s Hindi film ‘Nagin’, released on January 19, 1976, stars Reena Roy, Sunil Dutt, Feroz Khan and Jeetendra, alongside Rekha, Sanjay Khan, Vinod Mehra and others. After her mate is killed, Roy’s shape-shifting serpent pursues those she holds responsible. Human appearances become disguises, turning recognition itself into a source of suspense. The creature is frightening, but her grief supplies the emotional engine: the monster movie doubles as a revenge melodrama, with a spectacularly starry list of potential victims.

2. Jaani Dushman (1979)

Released on May 25, 1979, Rajkumar Kohli’s ‘Jaani Dushman’ assembled Sunil Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Jeetendra, Reena Roy, Rekha and Neetu Singh for a village mystery involving a beast that abducts brides. Its hairy, fanged humanoid antagonist has a werewolf-like appearance, although it should not simply be treated as the same kind of wolf transformation seen in ‘Bhediya’. The appeal lies in the collision of familiar wedding rituals, a concealed identity and an unmistakably physical monster. Long before computer-generated creatures became commonplace, horror could arrive wearing fur and bearing a substantial grudge.

3. Punnami Naagu (1980)

The Telugu ‘Punnami Naagu’, directed by Rajasekhar and released on June 13, 1980, stars Chiranjeevi, Narasimha Raju, Rati Agnihotri and Menaka. Chiranjeevi plays Naagulu, a snake charmer fed venom from childhood to make him immune to snakebites; the story gives his poisonous body and cobra-like behaviour a deadly, fantastical dimension. This is a useful variation on the serpent theme: Naagulu is not simply an ichchadhari snake adopting a human disguise. The horror grows from what has been done to a man’s body, bringing suffering and fatal desire into the creature narrative.

4. My Dear Kuttichathan (1984)

Indian screen creatures were never confined to frightening adults. Jijo Punnoose’s Malayalam fantasy ‘My Dear Kuttichathan’, released on August 24, 1984, features Master Arvind, Master Suresh, Sonia and Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair, with Dalip Tahil among the cast. Three children befriend a magical Kuttichathan freed from a sorcerer’s control, opening the door to mischief and adventure. Celebrated as India’s first 3D feature, it made technical spectacle part of the creature’s appeal. Here was a supernatural companion children could wish to meet — a reminder that a film’s magical being need not be its villain.

5. Nagina (1986)

Sridevi, Rishi Kapoor, Amrish Puri, Sushma Seth and Prem Chopra feature in Harmesh Malhotra’s ‘Nagina’, released on November 28, 1986. Sridevi’s Rajni is a shape-shifting serpent whose marriage to a human places her secret identity at the centre of a romantic fantasy and a confrontation with Puri’s Bhairon Nath. The supernatural spectacle depends as much on her gaze, movement and performance as on transformation effects. Its success helped fuel a wave of serpent romances. The creature was now a leading lady audiences could identify with, and the human determined to control her could be the greater threat.

6. Junoon (1992)

Three decades before ‘Bhediya’, Rahul Roy was already experiencing an alarming change of species. Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Junoon’, released on September 18, 1992, stars Roy alongside Pooja Bhatt and Avinash Wadhawan. After surviving an encounter with a cursed tiger, Vikram becomes a tiger himself on full-moon nights. The film combines a romantic triangle with the terror of a human predator hiding in plain sight. Its man-to-tiger transformation makes it an important bridge in this history: animal metamorphosis had moved beyond serpent legends, and the romantic leading man could also be the creature everyone needed to escape.

7. Go Goa Gone (2013)

A holiday, a rave and a disastrous morning after: Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K.’s ‘Go Goa Gone’, released on May 10, 2013, gave the zombie outbreak a distinctly irreverent Hindi-film outing. Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu, Vir Das, Anand Tiwari and Puja Gupta play the people trying to survive an island overrun by zombies. The threat is an outbreak rather than a curse awaiting a ritual cure, and survival comes with frantic improvisation and considerable bickering. The film helped make the creature encounter a comedy of human incompetence. Being chased by the undead was frightening; managing your friends could be almost as difficult.

8. Creature 3D (2014)

Vikram Bhatt’s ‘Creature 3D’, released on September 12, 2014, stars Bipasha Basu, Imran Abbas, Mukul Dev and Deepraj Rana. Bipasha Basu’s hotelier finds her forest resort threatened by a predatory being identified within the film as a Brahmarakshas. Its reptilian, humanoid design turns the supernatural menace into something the camera can reveal, chase and place directly opposite its heroine. The film drew substantial criticism, but its place in this evolution is clear: a Hindi horror production was attempting to build its main spectacle around a digitally created, physically attacking monster, with a local supernatural explanation attached.

9. Miruthan (2016)

Directed by Shakti Soundar Rajan, ‘Miruthan’ released on February 19, 2016, starring Ravi Mohan, credited then as Jayam Ravi, Lakshmi Menon, Kaali Venkat and Anikha Surendran. A traffic policeman becomes caught in a zombie emergency, helping a group seeking a medical solution as infected attackers multiply. Widely presented on release as Tamil cinema’s first zombie film, it brings the creature threat into the territory of infection, containment and action. The frightening figure is no longer one exceptional being lurking outside a village: an entire population can become dangerous, and the hero cannot solve the problem merely by identifying one disguised culprit.

10. Nagarahavu (2016)

The Kannada ‘Nagarahavu’, released on October 14, 2016, was directed by Kodi Ramakrishna and stars Ramya and Diganth, alongside Rajesh Vivek and Mukul Dev. Ramya’s character is connected to a warrior’s past and a snake woman’s present, with a powerful sacred object driving the struggle. The production also recreated the late Vishnuvardhan’s likeness through visual effects for a special appearance. Its reception was far from unanimously favourable, but it demonstrates the persistence of the serpent fantasy: reincarnation and supernatural protection remained familiar ingredients, now mounted around elaborate digital imagery.

11. Tumbbad (2018)

Released on October 12, 2018, ‘Tumbbad’ was directed by Rahi Anil Barve, with Adesh Prasad credited as co-director, and stars Sohum Shah, Mohammad Samad and Anita Date. Its treasure-seeking protagonist enters the domain of Hastar, the ravenous fallen being around whom the film constructs its mythology. Barve has explained that he created the opening legend, drawing inspiration from Indian customs, literature and folk tales; it should not be presented as a straightforward retelling of established scripture. Hastar matters because the creature is inseparable from the film’s ideas. Gold is the lure, appetite is the trap, and human greed keeps returning for another helping.

12. Kumari (2022)

Nirmal Sahadev’s Malayalam fantasy-horror ‘Kumari’, released on October 28, 2022, stars Aishwarya Lekshmi, Shine Tom Chacko, Swasika and Surabhi Lakshmi. A young woman marries into an ancestral household whose prosperity and power are entangled with frightening supernatural forces. A Chathan and another ancient deity belong to the film’s world, where bargains made by earlier generations threaten the next. The creature story consequently becomes a family story, with motherhood, inherited wrongdoing and feudal ambition feeding its horror. The danger cannot be neatly kept outside the house: it is embedded in the arrangements that have sustained the household itself.

13. Bhediya (2022)

Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon, Abhishek Banerjee, Deepak Dobriyal and Paalin Kabak star in Amar Kaushik’s ‘Bhediya’, released on November 25, 2022. Bhaskar, a contractor seeking support for a road through Arunachal Pradesh’s forest, is bitten by a wolf and begins transforming into one. Body horror, friendship comedy and forest conservation then share the same frame. The interesting reversal is that the creature’s violence forces scrutiny of the humans threatening its habitat. Becoming a beast changes the hero’s perspective on what he had considered development. The werewolf can still bare its teeth, but those teeth now have a cause behind them.

14. Bramayugam (2024)

The Malayalam ‘Bramayugam’, directed by Rahul Sadasivan and released on February 15, 2024, stars Mammootty, Arjun Ashokan and Sidharth Bharathan, with Amalda Liz in a supporting role. A wandering singer enters an isolated mansion whose apparent master conceals a terrible supernatural truth involving a Chathan. Shot in black and white, the film makes domination, confinement and uncertainty as oppressive as its creature. It also demonstrates how differently a related folkloric being can function across films: the magical companion of a children’s adventure can become an instrument for examining power and enslavement.

15. Munjya (2024)

Released on June 7, 2024, Aditya Sarpotdar’s ‘Munjya’ stars Abhay Verma, Sharvari, Mona Singh, Suhas Joshi and Sathyaraj. Its computer-generated title creature draws on Konkan folklore, with a dead boy’s thwarted desire to marry continuing to torment his descendants. Bittu becomes the unwilling participant in the being’s schemes, turning inherited horror into a present-day headache. The important shift is in presentation: a regional supernatural figure receives a recognisable screen design and drives a mainstream Hindi horror comedy. The creature’s appearance supplies the spectacle, while its possessiveness supplies a less amusing warning about treating another person as an entitlement.

16. Stree 2 (2024)

Amar Kaushik’s ‘Stree 2’, released on August 15, 2024, brings back Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Banerjee and Aparshakti Khurana. This time, Chanderi faces Sarkata, a towering headless supernatural antagonist targeting women, particularly those exercising independence. The detachable head gives the menace an immediately identifiable monster-movie image, while the story links his terror to control over women’s lives. Building on the ghostly threat of ‘Stree’, the sequel expands the scale and makes room for a wider supernatural world. Its monster can be read at two levels: an enormous physical problem and a familiar social attitude given grotesque form.

17. Jinn—The Pet (2025)

Directed by T.R. Bala, the Tamil ‘Jinn—The Pet’ released on May 30, 2025, starring Mugen Rao, Bhavya Trikha, Radha Ravi, Bala Saravanan and Vinothini. A musician brings a boxed, supposedly tamed jinn from Malaysia to India, hoping it will improve his luck. The resulting family troubles create uncertainty about whether the being is a threat or a protector. Although reviewers found the storytelling uneven, its inclusion widens this creature history beyond serpents and Western-style monsters. A supernatural being can become something a person tries to acquire and manage — usually the point at which the instruction manual deserves much closer attention.

18. Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra (2025)

Dominic Arun’s Malayalam ‘Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra’, released on August 28, 2025, stars Kalyani Priyadarshan and Naslen, with Sandy in a key role. Chandra’s identity draws on the yakshi and Kalliyankattu Neeli traditions, giving a vampire-like folkloric figure the central heroic position. The wider world also introduces a Chathan and an Odiyan, played in special appearances by Tovino Thomas and Dulquer Salmaan, respectively. The crucial change is whose story gets told: the being once approached as an object of fear becomes a character with her own history and agency. Kerala’s legends provide the foundation for a connected superhero-fantasy world.

19. Thamma (2025)

Released on October 21, 2025, Aditya Sarpotdar’s ‘Thamma’ stars Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandanna, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Paresh Rawal. A journalist’s encounter with a blood-drinking betaal brings him into a supernatural society with its own rules and conflicts. These are the film’s vampire-like beings, rather than a claim that every traditional betaal story follows this interpretation. Romance, family comedy and an ancient threat operate together, while appearances by familiar characters connect it to Maddock’s wider horror-comedy universe. The creature is now part of a larger population: it can have loyalties, restrictions, enemies and relationships extending beyond one film’s central scare.

20. Raakaasa (2026)

The Telugu ‘Raakaasa’, directed by Manasa Sharma and released on April 3, 2026, stars Sangeeth Sobhan and Nayan Sarika, alongside Getup Srinu, Vennela Kishore, Brahmaji and Ashish Vidyarthi. A US-returned young man enters the orbit of a mysterious fort and a demon demanding human sacrifice, disturbing a rule the villagers have long obeyed. Produced by Niharika Konidela, the film mixes a creature threat with fantasy adventure and comedy. Its importance to this journey is that evolution also involves returning to older pleasures: an ominous fort, a forbidden boundary and a human foolish or unlucky enough to cross it.

The next turn brings the serpent back into the spotlight. Kartik Aaryan’s ‘Naagzilla’, directed by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba, is currently scheduled for February 12, 2027, after moving from its earlier August 2026 date. Its shape-shifting-snake comedy suggests how durable that old fascination remains. Dharma’s two other creature projects, meanwhile, are still reported developments, with casting not established in the October report. What this history does show is an expanding range of possibilities: the monster can carry the fear, the joke, the love story — or the whole franchise.