On 2nd December 2025, ‘The Resident’, a new Bengali horror, directed by Arnab Riingo Banerjee, had its grand premiere at SRFTI (Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute). Based on real haunted houses in India, the audience was left on the edge of their seats with the eerie storytelling and atmospheric visuals.
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Behind the scenes: Direction, cast, and craft
The feature film is produced by Ohendrila Banerjee under the banner of Ring a Bell Films. Directed by Arnab Riingo Banerjee, who also takes charge of the screenplay, cinematography, editing, and music, the film engages the audience by maintaining suspense at each turn, with Tirthankar Majumdar’s sound design. Conveying the story into the realm of reality, the story is carried with strong performances by Sean Banerjee, Sabyasachi Chowdhury, Pratyusha Roslin, Rana Basu Thakur, Raima Ghosh, Sugata Guha, Tapsya Dasgupta, and Subharti Biswas.
Based on true stories
Haunted houses are located in different regions of the country, and we have heard many stories about fear and supernatural experiences. Among them, some real-life experiences are worth bringing before the public eye, and thus, with this motive, the franchise “The Resident” was created.
The first among those, "The Case of HZ26", has been adapted from the famous Dukhani House in Shimla, long rumoured for harbouring supernatural events. The story follows the Patel family from the late 1960s and is reimagined in 2024, thus bringing to life chilling experiences that blur the line between reality and the paranormal. ‘The Resident’ blends real-life horror with cinematic storytelling.
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A couple haunted by loss and mystery
The story revolves around Sean and Maya, a grief-stricken couple who lost their unborn child. In hopes of restarting life all over again, they get themselves an amazing bungalow at a very low price. What starts as their new beginning takes a horrifying turn, as Maya starts acting strangely and Sean discovers that the house has a dark past. The couple then seeks the help of Rudrajit, a freelance medium, and further events take their home to the extreme, to a point nobody can forget.
