Nayyi Navelli teaser: Yami Gautam's new bride is accused of being a daayan

Dubai: Yami Gautam Dhar's next film has a premise built entirely around one accusation. The teaser for Nayyi Navelli, released Thursday, opens with a brother-in-law calling a family meeting to say: he thinks his bhabhi is a daayan (meaning witch).

"Bhabhi daayan hai (sister-in-law is a witch)," he blurts out, and is immediately slapped and shouted down for it. The teaser then spends its remaining minute suggesting he might not be entirely wrong.

What's in the teaser

The one-minute-31-second teaser leans into chaos rather than explanation. Gautam Dhar's character, described in the film's own promotional material as Mohini, appears to levitate at one point, telling viewers she eats "two daayan, three pishach and four ghosts for breakfast," a line that plays as a joke and a genuine hint.

She follows it with a direct request to the audience: "think big." Sharing the teaser herself, Gautam Dhar wrote, "Deviyon aur sajanon, Mohini ki taraf se a little request," addressing viewers in character.

The tone the makers are going for is kind of like: the "madness of Tanu Weds Manu" colliding with "the mysteries of Tumbbad."

The Tumbbad connection

Nayyi Navelli comes from Colour Yellow, the production company founded by Aanand L. Rai, and Tumbbad is on Colour Yellow's own slate alongside Raanjhanaa, the Tanu Weds Manu franchise, Atrangi Re, Tere Ishk Mein and Tu Yaa Main.

So when the marketing says the film "collides with the mysteries of Tumbbad," it's referencing a film made by the same house, not simply borrowing the name of a well-regarded horror title for comparison.

Team behind it

Balaji Mohan directs, working from a script by Himanshu Sharma and Divy Nidhi Sharma. Rai and Sharma produce through Colour Yellow, alongside Amazon MGM Studios. G.V. Prakash Kumar composes the music.

Amazon MGM Studios has described it as a "fantasy family entertainer," a genre label doing a fair amount of work here given the teaser's blend of horror imagery and domestic comedy.

Nikhil Madhok, director and head of SVOD Originals at Prime Video India and Amazon MGM Studios, framed the release date as a deliberate choice rather than a scheduling convenience. "As we saw Nayyi Navelli finally come together, there was an instant, collective realisation that this is THE Dussehra film. No other date would do it justice," he said.

Release date

Nayyi Navelli opens in Indian cinemas on 16 October, timed just ahead of Dussehra. It arrives in the same window as Drishyam: The Conclusion and Jailer 2, both of which are also targeting the festival period, making mid-October one of the more crowded release dates on the Indian calendar this year.