Ashish Nikam

Ashish Nikam’s filmography is honestly a bit of a rollercoaster, and I mean that in the best way. You look at Badlapur (2015) and you instantly get hit with this gritty, slow-burn revenge vibe. The movie’s all about Raghu, a dude who gets stuck in this spiral of pain after his wife and kid are brutally murdered. Years go by, and he’s just consumed by the idea of payback. It’s not your paint-by-numbers thriller, either—the lines between good and evil get all kinds of blurry, and by the end, you’re left wondering who you should’ve been rooting for in the first place. Fast forward to Hindi Medium (2017), and now you’re in totally different territory. This one’s a sharp, satirical look at the Indian education system. The main couple, Raj and Mita, are desperate to get their daughter into a fancy English-medium school. So desperate, they basically turn their lives upside down—lying, pretending to be poor, dealing with bureaucracy, the works. It’s funny and biting, but it’s also got plenty of heart. There’s a lot of commentary on class, privilege, and just how far people will go for their kids. Stree (2018) takes yet another turn. It’s horror-comedy, and honestly, it’s hilarious and creepy in equal measure. There’s this urban legend about a spirit who haunts a small town, and the entire community is freaked out about getting snatched away at night. But the movie flips the whole ghost trope on its head, mixing scares with genuine laugh-out-loud moments and some sharp digs at gender stereotypes. You watch it and you’re like, “Wait, did they really just go there?” Yep, they did.