Surina Narula has done it all. Over the past three decades, she has championed literature, education, women’s rights, children’s welfare and environmental causes, leaving an indelible mark across philanthropy and the arts. She founded the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, was a founding sponsor of the Jaipur Literature Festival, and established the Global Sustainability Film Awards. Based in London and originally from New Delhi, she was awarded an MBE in 2008 for services to street children in India. Now, she has added filmmaker to that distinguished list.
Her directorial debut, Haunted Heritage, officially selected for the London Indian Film Festival 2026, is a psychological horror short that uses a haunted house as a metaphor to examine prejudice, racism and the fears societies pass down from one generation to the next. “The greatest surprise was discovering just how monumental the process of making a film really is,” Narula says.
According to her, the ghost sequences were the steepest learning curve. “Creating convincing supernatural moments without exaggeration was something I had never done before,” she says. The story itself emerged during the Covid pandemic, when prolonged isolation led her to reflect on how fear can revive old prejudices. “The film asks whether fear and uncertainty can awaken prejudices we believe we’ve left behind. The ghost is really a metaphor for those inherited fears and biases that continue to haunt us.” Living in a 300-year-old Georgian house made horror feel like a natural choice.
At the heart of the film lies an unexpected message. “For me, the real exorcism is forgiveness,” she says. “The ghost isn’t banished by force; it is finally laid to rest through forgiveness and compassion.” Narula believes audiences in Britain and India will interpret the film differently, yet arrive at the same truth. “British audiences may see race and immigration. Indian audiences may recognise caste, religion or class. The details differ, but prejudice exists in every society.”
Her hope is that viewers leave asking themselves a difficult question: What ghosts am I carrying? “It is easy to recognise prejudice in someone else. It is much harder to recognise it in ourselves.” Years spent working with street children, women and marginalised communities convinced her that “some of the greatest horrors are not supernatural—they are created by human beings.” Among them, caste discrimination continues to haunt her most. “To be treated as though your very presence contaminates others is a terrible form of dehumanisation.”
Her next dream project would examine caste through the same language of horror, inspired by stories of honour killings over inter-caste relationships. Instead of revenge, her imagined story would begin with a daughter’s ghost returning to ask her mother: “What ghost do you carry that even your love for me was not enough?”
“The real monster is rarely the person,” Narula says. “It is the inherited belief, the fear, the prejudice that has possessed them for generations.” Alongside those ambitions, her next film as a producer is already underway. Tasme, a children’s feature directed by Vinay Thakur, is currently being shot in Chandigarh. If Haunted Heritage is any indication, Narula’s cinema will continue to use ghosts to illuminate the invisible prejudices that shape the human condition.