Filmmaker and Festival Founder Sapna Moti Bhavnani Interview [Women in Horror Month 2025}

Meet Sapna Moti Bhavnani:

To start, please introduce yourself:
Sapna Moti Bhavnani is best known for her award winning documentary Sindhustan (2019) which is about the largest migration of a culture (Sindhi) in history told through tattoos on her body. Sindhustan has won 11 Awards, travelled to 23 international festivals. In July 2020 Sapna launched her production company called Wench Films to empower the female gaze. Keeping the same Wench philosophy, she founded Wench Film Festival – India’s first Horror Film Festival. Since its first edition in 2021, WFF has screened 188 films and Spotlighted 495 Women. In Oct 2024, she launched India’s first Zombiecon and in Feb 2025 she launched Terror Talkies– India’s first horror publication.

The story for Sapna’s next horror feature Bearlike Man was officially selected at NAFF presented by Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 2021 making her the first Indian Woman Director to ever get selected and in 2022 at the BIFFF genre market. She was also selected at BIFAN in 2022 as an official mentee at the Fantastic Film School.

She is currently writing the screenplay for Bearlike Man and developing a hybrid feature titled Wolf Song based on a young woman with hypertrichosis, also known as the “werewolf syndrome’ and her inspiring journey to become a singer, unravelling the transformative power of music amidst familial and societal challenges. Wolf Song was officially selected as a WomanInFan Finalist at Sitges 2024.

Besides film, Sapna is working on a one spirit audio visual monologue which she plans on taking on the road this summer.

What is horror to you, what makes a work of art one in the horror genre?

Being raised in a spiritual country like India, Horror has a completely different meaning to me. I don’t like to use the term ghosts but prefer spirits. As a child my maternal grandma, my mom and I used to call the spirits all the time for answers. The process was very intense and I remember loving every minute of it. As an adult, I still communicate with spirits and the most frequent one being my dad.

I use this in my art as a filmmaker, as an artist who most recently has been scouting my village for animal remains and growing crystals on them to make them immortal, and making handmade wench dolls.

What made you want to work in horror?

Do you really have a choice? lol I think they picked me .. I can’t explain how we have successfully completed 5 editions of Wench Film Festival without a sponsor .. they are with us!

Where do you get your inspiration?

Every person, family, neighborhood, village, religion has their own set of superstitions in India. There is no shortage of inspiration, just funds to explore the fantastic.

What would you like your legacy to be in the genre (or elsewhere)?

I think the world is very obsessed with western horror and icons created thereof. I would like to bring stories of Indian spirits and hope to become one while doing so.

What is Women in Horror Month to you and why is it still important this many years later?

We don’t celebrate this in India but with Wench we have been creating awareness and it seems to be working. I think even with women film fests, the concept is as wrong as male film fests but they are very necessary till we flood the mainstream and become the norm which will be sooner than later with this united push worldwide.

Who are some of the Women in Horror who you look up to and who do you want to bring attention to in your field or others?

Shelagh Rowan Legg – Poet, filmmaker, writer, curator, programmer Wench Film Festival

Heather Buckley – I sure love EVERYTHING she stands for.

Kier-La Janisse – film writer, programmer, producer, and founder of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies

Toby Poser – Actor, Writer, Director and Musician

What are you currently working on that you can tell us about?

I am currently writing the screenplay for Bearlike Man and developing a hybrid feature titled Wolf Song based on a young woman with hypertrichosis, also known as the “werewolf syndrome’ and her inspiring journey to become a singer, unravelling the transformative power of music amidst familial and societal challenges. Wolf Song is very special to me and having Heather Buckley involved makes me very proud.

Where can readers keep up with you? (social and whatnots go here)

I am very easy to find unfortunately.
Wench Film Festival’s Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/wench.filmfestival/
My Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/sapnamotibhavnani/

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