The wellness industry is about to get a lot more dangerous. Junghal Studios has released the trailer for Namaslay, the genre-bending horror satire written and directed by the Indian filmmaker duo Rish and Kanish, marking their feature film debut.
The film follows Gayatri, played by Kirunthuja Srikanth-Talim, a woman who relocates to Los Angeles and accepts an invitation to join the elite instructor training program at the prestigious Vital Soul yoga studio. As she advances through the program and reconnects with the practice she first learned from her grandmother, she is invited to an exclusive Malibu retreat where she discovers a sinister supernatural force hidden beneath the studio’s polished exterior.
SAG-AFTRA actress Alicia Mitchell-Mangual plays Malika, a yoga instructor-in-training selected for the retreat who initially feels like an outsider before forming a close and ultimately vital friendship with Gayatri as the two navigate increasingly dangerous events together. “Malika’s courage and vulnerability immediately resonated with me,” Mitchell-Mangual said. “Even when she’s afraid, she chooses to protect the people she cares about. I hope audiences connect with her strength, wittiness, and heart.”
Inspired by the tradition of Indian masala cinema, which blends multiple unlikely genres and rose to prominence in the 1970s, Namaslay turns the commercialization and cultural appropriation of yoga in the West into a blood-soaked and darkly comedic cultural reckoning. The film also stars Angela Sant’Albano, Usha Krishnan and Christina Moore.
Namaslay is produced by Venk Potula via Khrisp Entertainment alongside Rish and Kanish and marks the first feature from Junghal Studios, the independent production company the directing duo founded in 2019.
Namaslay opens in AMC Theatres in New York and Los Angeles on August 6 before expanding nationwide on August 13.