At the heart of What Brings You Here Tonight? is an older sister grappling with the guilt of sabotaging her younger sister’s future, now faced with the choice to either mend their bond or sever it. As an older sister myself, stories of sibling rivalry always called to me, and I wanted to use the power of fantasy to depict the love, hate, and friction that comes with it. 

Growing up in India, I watched my small town grow into a bustling metropolis, and we still don’t have community theatres doing musical productions. I’ve always been infatuated with the power of musical storytelling, and in freshman year, I decided I wanted to use this medium to increase accessibility to those music and dance styles beyond the Western epicenters of entertainment.

Anya McKenzie is celebrating the debut of her third Broadway play. She has it all – the glitzy friends, even a Tony to her name. The evening screeches to a halt when she bumps into her estranged little sister, Nicole, the biggest skeleton in Anya’s sprawling closet. Anya’s window to make amends with her sister for a years-old wound narrows when the head of the Oyster House, Maame, comes out of the shadows to sing for her guests. The Oyster House is a cesspool for people’s deepest desires, a wishing well disguised as a nightclub that preys on its guests to maintain Maame’s immortality. Anya soon realizes that Maame does not allow those who have made their wishes to leave – ever. And Nicole is her next target. 

What Brings You Here Tonight? is a cautionary tale about forgetting what – and who – matters most, in the end. The themes of girlhood and rekindled familial bond will meet corruption and temptation, to create a balanced and heartbreaking world that you will want to run towards and away from simultaneously.

Production for “What Brings You Here Tonight” is set to shoot in late March, 2025, in New York.

 

The film is set to go through rigorous post-production immediately following production, as we aim to have a fully completed project by the end of June 2025 and a film festival release in 2026. 

Production for “What Brings You Here Tonight” is set to shoot in late March, 2025, in New York, followed by a rigorous post-production process, gearing up for a film festival release in 2026. 

 

Once released, our primary goal with this project is to spark a discussion around girlhood, greed, and corruption.