Global Indian star Priyanka Chopra Jonas has been bombarding social media to promote her chilling new psychological thriller ‘Evil Eye’.
Co-produced by the actress along with Jason Blum, Priyanka used a selfie along with a play on words in the caption: “Chashme Baddoor. Far be the evil eye” – an Indian reference to guarding against evil.
Directed by award-winning filmmakers Elan and Rajeev Dassani and written by Madhuri Shekar, ‘Evil Eye’ hit the Amazon Prime screens this week with claims of being packed with twists and turns like no other, as a mother and daughter are forced to confront dark family secrets.
Sarita Choudhury, who plays the mother, said of the script: “You begin it and you think you’re in one movie… like a bright, cheery mother wants to get her daughter married. Then you move into what seems a little about psychology. Then when it turns… I remember thinking ‘I don’t know how to make this work’ where the audience will believe all this, and that’s what interested me.”
‘Evil Eye’ is a seemingly romantic story that turns into a chilling tale of the supernatural. Along with the supernatural elements, it also depicts everyday horrors to chilling effect. The filmmakers said they worked with experts in the field of emotional and physical trauma to ensure they treated the issue accurately.
Co-director Rajeev Dassani said: “My brother and I were born in Nashville, Tennessee but our parents are originally from India, so finding a project like ‘Evil Eye’ that dealt with the tension that exists between Indian and American culture was incredible.
“You rarely encounter a cross-generational immigrant family story like this, especially one that’s also a supernatural thriller. I’d never seen a film go where this one does, and we were very excited about the prospect of directing Madhuri Shekar’s script.”
Although the story takes place in a supernatural context, the filmmaker said the team wanted to comment on the cycle of violence that happens to women in the real world. And, the directors sought that same degree of authenticity when it came to the film’s religious references.
Dassani adds: “We actually had a local Hindu priest in New Orleans come and work with us to make sure that the prayers in ‘Evil Eye’ were accurate, because we felt it was important to represent those elements as honestly as possible.
“We were very aware of using that iconography in a way that was respectful to the culture, while also allowing us the freedom to modify the concept in a way that was effective dramatically.”