Johny Lever’s son Jesse to star in the horror-comedy ‘Indian Institute of Zombies’

Veteran actor-comedian Johny Lever’s son Jesse Lever will be seen next in digital entertainment platform Kuku’s debut Hindi theatrical, Indian Institute of Zombies (IIZ). Set inside an elite engineering campus, the film blends zombie horror, youth comedy and sharp social satire.

The film has been written by Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal, known for their work on projects like Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva and Farzi among others. It is directed by Gaganjeet Singh and Alok Dwivedi and also stars Anupriya Goenka, Mohan Kapur, Ranjan Raj, Shivani Paliwal, Shantanu Anam, Rose Sardana, Sachin Kavetham, Tanishq Chaudhary, among others.

Known for their audio stories and mico-dramas, Kuku is venturing into feature films with IIZ marking the first step in building its theatrical slate.

As per a press release, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been deeply integrated into the project’s development and production workflows, from concept structuring and story architecture to scheduling, budgeting simulations and rapid creative iteration. “Rather than using AI as a gimmick, Kuku has embedded it into its production backbone to enable faster development cycles,” said the makers.

Speaking about the film, Kunj Sanghvi, senior Vice President, Kuku, said in a statement, “Indian Institute of Zombies is a film for everyone who has ever been on a college campus. We hope our audiences get to experience their adventurous and brave side as they watch this hilarious film on zombies. We observed the success rates of Horror Comedies at the cinemas, the lack of a breakout Indian Zombie film yet and the insatiable appetite for campus stories across age groups in India.”

IIZ will be released in theatres on May 8.