The trailer for the August 31 release Stree indicates that comedy is often the flip side of horror. Supposedly inspired by a “true phenomenon”, Amar Kaushik’s movie pairs Rajkummar Rao with Shraddha Kapoor. Stree is “set in a town called Chanderi, where men have started disappearing mysteriously”, according to the official synopsis. Local lore has it that a prostitute has embarked on a vendetta mission against all of mankind after being betrayed by her lover. She has transmogrified into a malevolent spirit, who gobbles up men and leaves only their clothes behind.

Is the spirit the woman who has stolen local tailor Vicky’s heart? And how does the spirit know the names of every man in Chanderi? She is plugged into the Aadhaar database, Pankaj Tripathi’s character guesses.

The screenplay is by Raj and DK, who have also co-produced the movie with Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films. The cast includes Aparshakti Khurana and Abhishek Banerjee.