Marriage & Monsters - South Asian Horror-Comedy Pilot
SYNOPSIS
Madhavan, an emotionally hardened American-Malayalee in Los Angeles, has an unusual freelance career of vanquishing supernatural creatures. However, his immigrant parents do not support his career and force him into an arranged marriage. His sheltered, but free-spirited wife, Meera, is now thrust into a new world to which she is not prepared. The series follows their relationship as they navigate marriage, Indian culture clash, and of course, killing monsters as a couple.
Where will your contributions go?
Our project is being produced by independent filmmakers who go through the everyday struggle of getting their voices heard in Hollywood. Your contribution will be used for a number of expenses including…
The total budget of our production is $15,000, and we have managed to already raise close to $6,000 to finish our production costs, now we are gearing up for post-production and getting the pilot screened.
-Production
- Cast & Crew Artist Rates & Kit Rentals
- Locations
- Catering and Crafts Services
- Equipment Rentals
- Transportation
-Post Production
- Editing
- Color Grading
- Sound Mixing
- Music Composition
- Visual Effects
-Distribution
- Film Festival Submission Fees
- Venue Rental for Screenings and Premiere
*IMPORTANT: YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MARRIAGE WITHOUT MONSTERS. FACT.
Photo Credit: IMAGINERICK STUDIOS for Sreejith Nair's costume design and creature special effects. View more of his work here, https://www.imaginerick.com/
Creating realistic and horrific creatures is vitally essential as we shape the world of our show.
Practical creature makeup and visual effects will be crucial to our success. Therefore, a majority of our funds will be put towards this area of production. We will be hiring experienced and qualified special effects artists to achieve a level of realism and respect. We believe in a more practical approach using state of the art materials to bring our creatures to life. Our monsters are indeed characters themselves and we want to showcase them in the best way possible.
Why Is This Project Important?
Hollywood has reached a point of recycling the same stories and franchises over and over again. As independent filmmakers, especially filmmakers of color, it is extremely frustrating to never have the opportunity to present our cultures and themes on film or television.
The purpose of this project is to enhance South Asian voices and push stories that we would not normally see in modern media. This is the chance to create something truly original that most big budget studios would never dream to make. We are filmmakers of color with unique perspectives and ideas, but we are also huge horror fans and have always wanted to combine our two worlds.
Most audiences are aware of arranged marriages in Indian culture, and aware of the concept. While this is a funny, crazy world about fighting supernatural creatures, the core of this project really is Meera and Madhavan, and how they adjust to marriage without fully knowing each other and learning to accept one another.
With your contribution we promise to deliver the funniest, scariest, and most romantic adventure possible.
The goal with any pilot is to get more funding for more episodes, which means selling this pilot to a studio or production company willing to take the story forward. This series will give audiences an unparalleled experience exploring South Asian family themes, through the lens of horror-comedy.
We want to give this project the widest audience we possibly can, so we will be submitting this to every film festival within our budget, including Tribeca, SXSW, Sundance, and many more. If you have any festivals you would like us to submit to please feel free contact n any of our social media pages.
We hope to establish an audience of support, so we can produce more episodes and tell the full story.
MOOD BOARD
Final Thoughts!
Once again, we sincerely thank you for your support and time in checking out our campaign. We really hope to raise the funds necessary to complete this beautiful story and bring new perspectives and voices to Hollywood and the world. Your contribution will make all the difference and we grow our monster loving family. Thank you! 
Sreejith Nair, a Chicago-born Malayalee filmmaker who grew up obsessively studying dinosaurs, mythical creatures, horror icons, and monsters from all cultures. His dream as a filmmaker was always to create monster movies, but with South Asian leads. Sreejith is best known for making the first ever Indian dinosaur movie, RAJASAUR, which received international festival praise in the US and India. He is also a recent graduate of Make-Up Designory, where he studied special effects and creature makeup.
Quote: “Marriage and Monsters is a huge comedic reflection of my entire life. I was always questioned by my South Asian friends and family about why monsters spoke to me more than people do. I want this show to be funny and scary at the same time, while really diving into the cultural confusion about a man who is misunderstood by everyone around him.”
Ever since Hunter was fired as his high school mascot, he began a hopeful journey into Hollywood. Growing up in Streator, IL he began experimenting with visual storytelling where eventually his success led to newspaper articles, radio, podcasts, televised news, and film festivals all over the world. He gives all credit to God for the talent and success in his life.
His latest project “Dog-Gone It!” screened at 60 festivals claiming many awards including Best Director. Hunter not only played a dog in the film, but he also met a feline companion, his good friend Sreejith Nair, the creator of Marriage and Monsters. Sreejith asked Hunter to direct his show and this is what Hunter said…
Quote: “Look Sreejith. I am honored you thought of me to direct this …Indian …Malayalee…Monster…thing, but you know I’m WHITE and I’ve never worked with monsters. I just don’t think I’m the right person for this project.”
Sreejith was relentless and approached Hunter multiple times stressing his belief that Hunter would be the perfect choice as director given his comedic style and attention to detail. Hunter agreed and found a love for the cultural traditions, language, world building, and he has made it his mission to accurately represent these lovable characters in a Malayalee monster infested world.
Harrison Orwig is a Director of Photography with a uniquely contemporary eye for imagery and an equally dry sense of humor. He has a background in Gaffing and Steadicam. Harrison delivers a precise look with any kit available, finding the balance of technical proficiency and narrative coherence. Leading camera for features to commercials, Harrison can easily identify what a production needs and how to achieve it. When not on set, Harrison climbs indoor rocks, plays with his very large cat, and gazes wistfully at his light meter, looking forward to its next use.
Aathira Rajeev is an Indian-American actress, dancer, model, and choreographer having received multiple awards for 'Best Actor' in film festivals. She is the embodiment of a 'representative' of an authentic Malayali in the Hollywood industry. A very versatile artist, she is also the choreographer for several A-List Artists and has worked as a guest star choreographer in the show 'Jasper and Errol's First Time' on VICE TV. She was LA India Fashion Week's showstopper, and is also a popular Bollywood reality show winner, Nach Baliye Season 7 UAE Challenge.
Kavi Ramachandran Ladnier is a seasoned actor, writer & producer who has over 28 years of experience working in theatre, film & television. Expanding the narrative about women in all of their WOMANITY, is part of her mission.
Kavi is an associate producer on the award winning feature East Bay in which she also stars with Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians, Fresh Off The Boat). East Bay has a May 2024-57 theater North American release and will be On Demand May 31, 2024.
Kavi's credits include NCIS: Los Angeles (Paramount/CBS), The Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO Max), and Mira: Royal Detective (Disney). Kavi produced & starred in the feature Boris and The Bomb and starred in and produced the award winning short film Now And Never which marked the first film under her production company "Art Heart Love Productions".
Raghuram Shetty is a multi-talented Award Winning Hollywood Actor, Executive Producer, Director, Writer and a Performing Artist. With his sons winning International Acting Awards in Hollywood, he moved to LA in 2014 to support family's Hollywood dream. Since his debut as a Lead in "Aditi", a short film from USC, he has featured as a Star and key Supporting roles in many award winning Shorts, Feature films, TV Series, major National/International Commercials (Super Bowls, IPL included!), Internet/Web series, PSAs, Dance and Music Videos, and so on. The recent productions like #FamilyMan (Feature Film) and "Patel Motel" (TV Series) depict the powerful all-round acting abilities of Raghuram in par with any top notch Actors in the world. The Award he won as Actor for several of his award winning Shorts like 'Coming Out with a Help Of Time Machine', 'Directors Treatment' or "Unfair and Ugly" Series etc., all point to the great potential and promise that it's just matter of time before he becomes the household name.
If you're Indian, and you want to become an actor, the first thing you do is study engineering. Followed preferably by a few years in Banking. In spite of it, when your first role on American TV is a guest-star role on "The O.C.", you know you're finally in the right place. Viji Nathan has since played "Zaboo's Mom" on "The Guild", and fun roles on "Outsourced" and other TV shows. She played the mom of Ali Fazal's character on the indie movie "For Here Or To Go?" which makes other Indians scratch their heads and say "I've seen you somewhere..".
Gurudev Nagaraja (Guru) is an actor based out of the Greater Sacramento Area. Originally from India, Guru has extensive theatre experience starting off at a very young age. He went on to pursue a career in Marketing and Technology Implementation for various US corporations and eventually returned to his passion for acting. Having acted in over 8 feature films in various roles and being part of several print, digital and TV commercials in India, Guru has been active in the entertainment space in Sacramento, San Francisco and LA. He has done various projects in multiple Indian languages apart for English. Besides acting, Guru is an avid hiker and a marathon runner.
Originally from Chicago, Terrell began his acting career in 2014. Since then he has appeared in numerous commercials, TV shows, and films. He his known for his roles in the films “The Color Of Me” and “I See Darkness.”
Almanya Narula, is an award winning actor, writer and fight choreographer. She started her career in the entertainment industry at a young age where she was a child actor in various Bollywood media. She is the creator of the multi award-winning and critically acclaimed solo show, Noor Inayat Khan: The Forgotten Spy, which has toured the nation to sold out houses including, Off-Broadway, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Other theater credits include: POTUS (Steppenwolf), Dial M for Murder (Theatresquared), Teenage Dick, The Whistleblower (Theater Wit), Mosquitoes (Steep). TV: After Them (Love XO). Film: Pandaal, The Ushers; Music Video: Feed the Machine (Nickelback); Select Awards: Best Actress (United Solo Festival), Soaring Solo Social Impact Award, Best Solo Performance Nominee (Hollywood Fringe Festival). She holds a B.A. in Theater & Advanced Management (double majors) with Stage Combat & Voice Over (double minors) from Columbia College Chicago. An M.A. in New Arts Journalism from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is also a recent graduate of the Stella Adler: Art of Acting Professional Conservatory.
Rishi Jaiswal is an Indian-American Actor, Director, Writer, Producer and Choreographer. He is the founder of the LA Based Aikyam Entertainment focusing on elevating South Asian genre films internationally. Most recently Rishi appeared on the NBC hit American Auto, and just starred and directed the feature film Unmasked which bagged best Thriller at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival. This summer he will be seen on Johnny Knoxville’s new ABC show Prank Panel. His stage work includes the award winning play Radicals as a lead, and has been in several films and commercials since then including being the principal in a series of spots for HP. He first appeared on shows like So You Think You Can Dance, Superstars of Dance etc. as a dancer while attending the University of California Irvine for Aerospace Engineering and Drama and then got accepted into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in LA where he completed his formal theater training.
Stephanie trained with Northwest Actor’s Studio, enjoys professional theatre, literary projects and 70s music. Always honing her craft with readings and independent shorts, she’s currently having fun with some stand-up and looking forward to what the artistic future holds.
