2020 · Film
Ghost Stories
Hindi horror anthology of four short films directed by Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar.
Reviewed by Movie Mandala, Sun, 18 Oct, 2026
Where to watch
IndiaAs of 18 October 2026, Ghost Stories is streaming in India on Netflix with a subscription.
The story
Four unrelated horror stories play one after another. In Zoya Akhtar's segment, a young nurse arrives at a lonely flat to care for a bedridden old woman whose son is never around. Anurag Kashyap follows a pregnant woman who babysits her late sister's young son, whose attachment to her turns unsettling. Dibakar Banerjee sends a traveller into a near-empty small town where two children tell him the residents have been eaten. In Karan Johar's story, a woman in an arranged marriage finds that her husband still talks every night to the grandmother who died years ago.
Spoiler-free: only the set-up.
Who it suits
A four-part horror anthology for adults who enjoy short, eerie tales from well-known Hindi directors. It includes cannibalism, body horror and disturbing scenes involving a pregnancy, and Netflix rates it U/A 16+.
Curation to help you choose, not a review.
Background
Ghost Stories is the third anthology film from Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap, after Bombay Talkies (2013) and Lust Stories (2018). Each segment is a separate original story, with no link to the others. It was produced by Ronnie Screwvala's RSVP Movies and Ashi Dua's Flying Unicorn Entertainment, and the reunion was announced in April 2019. Akhtar began shooting her segment with Janhvi Kapoor and Vijay Varma in August 2019, Kashyap filmed his with Sobhita Dhulipala in September, and Johar started his segment with Mrunal Thakur and Avinash Tiwary in Goa on 1 October 2019.
The film premiered on Netflix on 1 January 2020 without a cinema release. Reviews were mixed: NDTV's Saibal Chatterjee gave it 2.5 out of 5, while Firstpost rated it 3 out of 5 and singled out Banerjee's politically themed segment.
The facts
- Language
- Hindi
- Hindi
- Hindi original
- Genre
- Horror anthology
- Runtime
- 144 min
- Director
- Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar
- Cast
- Janhvi Kapoor, Sobhita Dhulipala, Mrunal Thakur, Avinash Tiwary, Gulshan Devaiah
Questions people ask
- Where can I watch Ghost Stories in India?
- As of 18 October 2026, Ghost Stories is streaming in India on Netflix with a subscription.
- Is Ghost Stories in Hindi?
- Yes. Ghost Stories is a Hindi-language film.
- How long is Ghost Stories?
- Ghost Stories runs for 2 hours 24 minutes (144 minutes).