Bollywood couple Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal have onboarded as producers on the feature film titled Secrets of a Mountain Serpent through their production banner, Pushing Button Studios. Their association comes just ahead of the film making its world premiere at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, according to Variety.
About Secrets of a Mountain Serpent
Director Nidhi Saxena’s debut feature, Sad Letters of an Imaginary Woman, premiered at the 2024 Busan International Film Festival and received great acclaim. Secrets of a Mountain Serpent is co-produced with Forest Flower Films, the banner of Cannes Camera d`Or winner Vimukthi Jayasundara, and is set to make its world premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Notably, Nidhi Saxena is the first Indian woman to win the Biennale College Fund grant for Secrets of a Mountain Serpent.
The film is set in a remote Himalayan town during the 1990s and tells the intimate story of Barkha, played by Trimala Adhikari, a school teacher whose husband is posted at the border. Living in a place where most men are gone and the region echoes with silence, Barkha is drawn to Manik Guho, played by Adil Hussain. Guho is a mysterious outsider who disrupts the balance of waiting, restraint, and myth.
Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal reveal reason for producing the film
Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal launched Pushing Buttons Studios with the vision to champion authentic, emotionally driven storytelling. They issued a joint statement, which read, “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.”
Meanwhile, Saxena, who also wrote the film, welcomed the new creative partnership with joy, saying, “This film is about women choose to risk everything and follow their desires, shedding the burden of moralities imposed upon them by the world. I was looking for kindred collaborators, and this feels like a meeting of minds and hearts. It also feels like we no longer need to borrow men’s voices to tell our stories. We have our own voice, which is strong, with femininity”.
Interestingly, Secrets of a Mountain Serpent has completed principal photography and is currently in post-production. It is set for its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August 2025.