Keen to reinvent the genre of shape-shifting serpent movies in Bollywood, Chhorii director Vishal Furia has kickstarted the prep for Naagin. The filmmaker reveals that the Shraddha Kapoor-starrer — a trilogy — will be VFX heavy; and is currently in pre-production. The team plans to recce multiple locations in India.

“We need specific locations for Naagin, as the energy of [shooting] in natural locales has an effect on the actors’ performance,” says the director, who hopes to start shooting this summer once Kapoor fulfils her earlier commitments.

Furia, who just wrapped up the Vikrant Massey-starrer Forensic, says that it didn’t take long to convince Kapoor to come aboard the project. “Shraddha liked the concept and came on board after just one meeting. We have had a few sittings over the script and looks. She is loving the process. We intend to have workshops for Naagin. It is an unusual character and will need a lot of prep.”

In the past, actors like Reena Roy, Rekha and Sridevi have played the supernatural character. But Furia insists that his film will deliver a “different treatment”. “Naagin is kind of based on that mythological character that we have earlier seen in films, yet it has been differently treated this time.”

The filmmaker believes that women-centric films make stories interesting. “Writing a story for a male protagonist vis-a-vis adapting it to a female actor, suddenly changes the story’s dynamics. It is interesting to cast actors like Nushrratt [Bharuccha] and Shraddha against the grain, [especially] if they are willing to go the extra mile. When an actor surrenders to the role and trusts the director completely to take the role to a different level, it is gratifying,” adds Furia.

He credits producer Nikhil Dwivedi for the concept of Naagin. “He bounced the concept off me and I found it amazing. I come from a background of VFX, so anything that has this level of special effects, excites me.”