Ashim Ahluwalia's Palace of Horrors part of anthology to be screened at SXSW film festival

Ashim Ahluwalia's Palace of Horrors, one of the eight films in the horror anthology, The Field Guide To Evil, will be premiered at the South By Southwest Festival in Texas (USA) on 9 March. The director's short film will be a part of eight other films by internationally renowned directors as part of the anthology.

Ahluwalia who last directed the critically acclaimed biopic on gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, Daddy (2017), has directed the short titled Palace of Horrors. The film, which will star his Miss Lovely (2013) actress Niharika Singh, is an atmospheric short film set in the Sunderbans of 1913 and tells the story of a crumbling palace, the mysterious rituals around it, and the story of a long-dead king. The mystery is unraveled by an American circus agent who seeks out the palace to find malformed freaks to take back to America.

The Field Guide To Evil is produced by Alamo Drafthouse, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos of Before Midnight (2013) and The Lobster (2015) fame; Keith and Jess Calder of Blair Witch (2016) fame and Legion M, amongst others.

The eight terrifying tales are by Ahluwalia, Peter Strickland ( Hungary), Calvin Reeder (United States), Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala (Austria), Katrin Gebbe (Germany), Can Evrenol (Turkey), Agnieszka Smoczynska (Poland), and Yannis Veslemes (Greece).

Talking about his experience in the involvement in the film, Ahluwalia said, "It’s quite an honour to be the first Indian filmmaker to have a world premiere at SXSW. It’s become the most relevant film festival in the US today. Our film The Field Guide to Evil is a collaboration between 8 international directors, all very exciting in their own right, and in that sense is very different from what I’m used to. It’s a horror film, inspired by dark folk tales from around the world, and the buzz on the premiere has been huge. I'm really excited for the audience to experience this."

The South By Southwest festival will take place between 9-18 March in Austin, Texas.