Jio Studios and Maddock Films have debuted the first trailer for their upcoming film Bhediya, on the occasion of star Varun Dhawan’s 10-year anniversary in Bollywood. Bhediya is the third installment in a horror comedy series that has retroactively been fashioned into a shared universe of interconnected films. In Hindi, the word “bhediya” means wolf.

The trailer opens with Dhawan’s character, Bhaskar, being chased through the dark woods by a menacing wolf, who bites him in the butt and bestows him with mysterious powers. In a scene that will remind viewers of the first Spider-Man movie starring Tobey Maguire, Bhaskar discovers the morning after being bitten by the wolf that he has lightning reflexes and a buff new bod. His buddies are of no help, but they are concerned about his strange behavior, which includes being attracted to roadkill. Thus begins Bhaskar's gradual transformation into a wolf himself.

Those who aren’t familiar with the grammar of mainstream Hindi filmmaking — this is the industry better known as Bollywood around the world — would be surprised to see a song-and-dance number in the middle of Bhaskar’s breakdown. Bhediya isn’t just a horror comedy, in true Bollywood fashion, it appears to be combining several other genres as well. At one point, we see glimpses of a sweet love story unfold between Bhaskar and his girlfriend before we get the briefest of looks at his transformation into a werewolf (which the trailer undercuts with some infantile humor). Unable to wrangle his powers, Bhaskar is faced with a difficult choice: he can either attempt to find a cure or use them for good.

bhediya wolf
Image via Maddock Films

RELATED: ‘Drishyam 2’ Trailer: Ajay Devgn and Akshaye Khanna Face Off in Bollywood Thriller

It’s worth pointing out that the film is set (and was partially shot) in the Northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which has largely been underrepresented in Indian cinema. Directed by Amar Kaushik, Bhediya is the second major Hindi movie of 2022 that attempts to right this wrong, after the political drama Anek.

Dhawan made his debut in 2012 with the comedy-drama Student of the Year and has since established himself as one of the most successful Bollywood leading men of his generation. He last starred in the romantic drama JugJugg Jeeyo. His co-star Kriti Sanon also debuted around the same time and has slowly established herself with a couple of acclaimed performances in well-received films such as Bareilly Ki Barfi and Mimi. She is set to star in the mythological epic Adipurush next year.

The first installment in producer Dinesh Vijan’s shared universe of horror comedies was 2018’s Stree, starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor. The crowd-pleaser was a major box office success, which inspired several similar Hindi horror comedies. Vijan followed it up with last year’s poorly received Roohi, also starring Rao, and Janhvi Kapoor. Prior to this series, Vijan had also co-produced the stoner zombie comedy Go Goa Gone. He said in a statement about Bhediya:

“Bhediya is Maddock’s attempt to deliver a world-class spectacle in record time. A complete family entertainer with spectacular VFX, this is a grand cinematic experience for all generations. It has phenomenal talent like Amar Kaushik at the helm; he has masterfully combined comedy and thrills to give you India’s first creature comedy.”

Bhediya appears to have been given a bigger budget than any of these films, and that’s probably down to the fact that Dhawan’s a significantly bigger star. But also because they’d want Bhediya to work if only to justify the several other movies that they’ve slated for the franchise. Bhediya also stars Abhishek Banerjee and Deepak Dobriyal. The film will be released in theaters in 2D and 3D on November 25, in the Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu languages. You can watch the trailer here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.