‘Severance’ Producer Nicholas Weinstock Boards Indian Fantasy-Horror ‘Tongue’ Starring Sayani Gupta (EXCLUSIVE)

Nicholas Weinstock, executive producer of the Apple TV+ series “Severance,” has boarded “Tongue,” an Indian fantasy-horror feature written and directed by Krishnarjun Bhattacharya and starring Sayani Gupta. Weinstock produces through his banner Invention Studios alongside Divya D’Souza, with Gupta serving as the film’s Indian producer. The film earned a spot in the South Asian Canadian Film Federation’s Indo-Canadian Producers’ Lab, and the Toronto Film Festivak will showcase it through its Indo-Canadian co-production market. In “Tongue,” two estranged sisters spend a single night locked inside their late grandmother’s crumbling mansion, hunting for clues that lead them past monstrous creatures and lethal traps toward secrets the family buried long ago, all connected to a mysterious language called the Tongue. Gupta stars as one of the sisters. Popular on Variety “I am enormously proud and excited about ‘Tongue’ and the chance to harness the talents of our fast-rising director Krishnarjun and the phenomenal Sayani,” Weinstock said. “India has yet to have its ‘Parasite,’ its ‘Get Out,’ its ‘Backrooms,’ as a breakout international horror hit, and this wildly original movie, some combination of all three, has the makings of a global smash.” Weinstock’s other credits include “Thelma,” the Nigerian film “Clarissa” and the Netflix series “In the Dark,” as well as the Apple TV+ series “High Desert.” Bhattacharya, a graduate of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, is also a novelist and game designer; he wrote the “Tantric Trilogy” and co-wrote the Indian horror series “Vakr,” set for a Netflix release in 2026. Gupta produces through her own banner, Sayani Gupta Movies, whose credits include the short film “Aasmani” and the indie feature “Where the Winds Blow.” Gupta is also making her U.S. feature film debut at the TIFF market this year with “Arya,” which completed filming in Duluth, Minnesota. Written and directed by Neil Tuli, the film centers on Arya Sinha, a strict-minded piano instructor at a top Indian conservatory who grudgingly accepts a posting in northern Minnesota meant to revive a failing school band program and boost her own career prospects back home. Adjusting to her new, unpredictable surroundings pushes Arya to loosen her grip and face insecurities she’s kept buried. Gupta serves as an executive producer on the film, alongside a cast that includes Ross Butler, Mark Evan Jackson and Adi Roy. TIFF has long been familiar ground for Gupta, whose breakout film “Margarita With a Straw” premiered there in 2015, followed by “Parched” in 2016 and “The Hungry” in 2017.