Ghoul is an Indian horror streaming television miniseries based on the Arab folklore monster ghoul, and the second Netflix original from India, after Sacred Games. The series is written and directed by Patrick Graham and jointly produced by Jason Blum, Anurag Kashyap, Ryan Turek, Vikramaditya Motwane, Michael Hogan, Kilian Kerwin, John Penotti and Suraj Gohill under their respective banners Blumhouse Productions, Phantom Films and Ivanhoe Pictures.
The story is set in India in a dystopian future where fascism is at its top, and the story's main plot is the interrogation of a dreaded terrorist Ali Saeed in a secret government internment camp that ignites a series of horrifying and supernatural events in the aftermath. Radhika Apte plays the main character Nida Rahim supported by Manav Kaul, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee, S. M. Zaheer, Mahesh Balraj, Rohit Pathak and Mallhar Goenka in prominent roles.
The miniseries was conceived based on a dream Graham had had. Originally meant to be the first of 3 films in a deal between three production houses, Netflix acquired the production in February 2018 after Graham felt that a longer format would be better and had it turned into a miniseries. Ghoul released to positive reviews from critics, with praise to the performances and storyline.
Premise
Nida Rahim (Radhika Apte) is a newly recruited military officer who is fiercely loyal to the authoritarian regime and is ready to go to any limit to prove her faith in the existing system to cleanse the society for a better future. She is appointed at a covert military detention centre to interrogate Ali Saeed (Mahesh Balraj), the most dreaded terrorist who has been recently captured and brought in for interrogation. However, he turns the tables on his interrogators, exposing their most shameful secrets. Rahim comes to the conclusion that Ali Saeed is not from this world and is possessed by some supernatural entity.
Cast
Radhika Apte as Nida Rahim
Manav Kaul as Colonel Sunil Dacunha
S. M. Zaheer as Shahnawaz Rahim
Ratnabali Bhattacharjee as Major Laxmi Das
Mahesh Balraj as Ali Saeed
Resh Lamba as Sinister Man
Mallhar Goenka as Subedar Babloo
Rohit Pathak as Captain Lamba
Robin Das as Maulvi (Muslim Cleric) Surender Thakur as Faulad Singh
Development
Mumbai-based British filmmaker Patrick Graham, who has made a few short films, saw a dream where an inmate enters a prison and manages to terrify the guards and the fellow prisoners. Graham wrote down the dream and developed it into a script. He also read several CIA documents about torture techniques used after 9/11 and at Camp X-Ray and the reports of military centres in Kashmir. He had a dream about being in an Abu Ghraib-like torture centre in Iraq. And then he thought, "‘What if an inmate came in and he was scarier than the place, scarier than the guards, scarier than the other prisoners and there’s something weird about him?" On 3 September 2014 Blumhouse Productions, Phantom Films and Ivanhoe Pictures announced a partnership deal for creating local language horror films in India. The first of three films from the partnership is Ghoul written and directed by Patrick Graham. Radhika Apte and Manav Kaul are starring in the film. Graham later felt a longer format would do more justice to the story. It was supposed to be a film and was later turned into a three episode miniseries after Netflix came on board in February 2018. Kaul called it a "blessing in disguise" as it gave them the breathing room to add a bit more backstory.