Indian Institute of Zombies (2026)

Indian Institute of Zombies 2026: horror played for laughs

Indian Institute of Zombies 2026, shortened to IIZ in promotion, is a Hindi zombie comedy set on an elite engineering campus. The title is an obvious wink at the prestigious institute names Indian students aspire to, and the pitch is exactly that joke extended into a feature: what happens when the brainy, high-pressure environment meets the undead.

Press material describes a group of back-benchers, the students least likely to be called heroes, who end up protecting the campus. The film is positioned as a mix of horror, youth comedy and social satire, and billed as the country's first campus zombie comedy.

Zombie comedies depend on balance. The horror has to be real enough to create stakes and the jokes have to come from character, not just from gore. Whether this one manages that is something we cannot say, because we have not watched it.

Who made it

The directors are Gaganjeet Singh and Alok Dwivedi, associated with Low Gravity Productions, and the screenplay is by Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal. It is the first Hindi theatrical feature from Kuku, the company behind Kuku FM and Kuku TV, which developed the story in-house. Kuku has said artificial intelligence was used in development and production; how visible that is on screen is not something we can judge.

The ensemble includes Jessie Lever, son of comedian Johnny Lever, Anupriya Goenka, Mohan Kapur, Ranjan Raj, Shivani Paliwal, Shantanu Anam, Rose Sardana, Sachin Kavetham and Tanishq Chaudhary. We were not able to confirm which actor plays which role, so none are assigned here.

Release date and where to watch

IIZ was slated for cinemas on 8 May 2026, and later press coverage treats it as already released. A Scroll write-up described the response as mixed, praising the idea but finding the pacing uneven; we pass that along as reported, not as our own verdict. No streaming platform or OTT date appears in the pages we checked, so it is not yet announced as far as we can verify. If you plan a watch, the film's campus-comedy tone suits a group viewing more than a solo late-night horror session.

Zombie comedies have a long tradition abroad, and the Indian campus setting gives this one a local flavour: hostel life, exam pressure and the status of the back bench are all familiar shorthand for an Indian audience. If you are new to the genre, expect some gore played for laughs rather than for dread, and check the certificate on your booking or streaming page if you are watching with younger viewers.