Experiencing Interruptions?

Bad Egg

Zoya receives a disturbing call from her mother - her sister Zara has gone missing during the pandemic. Surprisingly, Zoya isn't rattled enough. She's hiding something, all of which leads back to the fateful night of a party. Throughout the film, Zoya interacts with her surroundings as if she’s re-calibrating to them. As the plot unravels, so does she. In this story, appearances can be very deceiving.

  • Mehak Jamal
    Director
  • Mehak Jamal
    Writer
  • Mehak Jamal
    Producer
  • Zoya Hussain
    Key Cast
    "Zoya/Zara"
  • Akshay Oberoi
    Key Cast
    "Dhruv"
  • Jim Sarbh
    Key Cast
    "Kabir"
  • Shruti Sridharan
    Key Cast
    "Dr. Shalini Thapar"
  • Sheeba Chaddha
    Key Cast
    "Mom"
  • Shanker Raman
    Director of Photography
  • Sahishnu Tongaonkar
    Production Sound Mixer and Sound Editor
  • Pooja Talreja
    Production Designer
  • Samyuktha Narendran
    Music Composer
  • Mahak Gupta
    Colorist
  • Mehak Jamal
    Editor
  • Rajesh Thanickan
    Executive Producer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    28 minutes 9 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 10, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    English, Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 19th Indian Film Festival Stuttgart, 2022
    Stuttgart
    Germany
    February 24, 2023
    World Premiere
    German Star of India : Audience Award (Winner)
  • 13th Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, 2022
    Melbourne
    Australia
    Australian Premiere
  • 14th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, 2022
    Trivandrum
    India
    August 28, 2022
    Indian Premiere
    In Competition - Short Fiction
  • 21st Imagine India International Film Festival Madrid, 2022
    Madrid
    Spain
    Spanish Premiere
    In Competition - Short Films
  • 13th Annual Chicago South Asian Film Festival, 2022
    Chicago
    United States
    North American Premiere
    In Competition - Short Fiction Film Category
  • Atlanta Indian Film Festival, 2022
    Atlanta
    United States
    Atlanta Premiere
    Excellence in Cinema Award 2022 (Won)
  • 11th DC South Asian Film Festival, 2022
    Washington DC
    United States
    DC Premiere
    Best Short Film Competition
  • 9th Goa Short Film Festival 2022
    Goa
    India
  • 11th Dharamshala International Film Festival, 2022
    Dharamshala
    India
  • Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards 2023
    Mumbai
    India
    In Competition - Best Short Film Award
Director Biography - Mehak Jamal

Mehak Jamal is a film maker from Kashmir, India and her focus is in screenwriting and direction. She has co-written the feature film called Love Hostel which has been co-produced by Shahrukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment.

Mehak's short film Bad Egg premiered at the 19th Indian Film Festival Stuttgart, 2022 and won the German Star of India - Audience Award.

Mehak has written for the web series 'Never Kiss Your Best Friend' Season 2 streaming soon on Zee5. She is currently writing web series for Disney Plus Hotstar and Amazon.

Mehak is currently a Literary Fellow at South Asia Speaks - a literary mentorship programme. She is writing a book called 'Loal Kashmir'.

She was one of sixteen screen-writing fellows handpicked from South Asia for Film Independent’s Global Media Maker’s Programme (2021). She was one of five Film Fellows at the Dharamshala International Film Festival (2016), which is one of the leading film festivals of India. Her student short film ‘In My Own Skin’ has been showcased at Kashish-Mumbai International Queer Film Festival (2017), which is one of the top five LGBT film festivals in the world.

In the past she worked as a Script Supervisor on several feature films including The Sweet Requiem (2018), Chuskit (2018), The Disciple (2021) etc. The Disciple has been featured in several ’Best Films of 2021’ lists, like Rolling Stones and New York Times to name a few.

She holds a Bachelors of Creative Arts in Film from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore (2016).

She currently writes for films and web series, and is based out of Bombay. Bad Egg is her first short film.

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Director Statement

I have always been interested in telling stories that conceal something in plain sight. I get excited when the viewer realises that they could have understood what was going on all along, only if they had looked a bit closer. In Bad Egg, my protagonist seems to be hiding something, but it is more than what meets the eye. Through this film, I want to play hide and seek with the viewer. There are many layers to this cinematic onion, and they get to peel them layer by layer. After all, what's more exhilarating than a mystery waiting to be solved.