The genre's roots in India can be traced to 1960s parallel cinema, where filmmakers like Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen employed psychological depth to critique societal structures. These early works laid the foundation for narrative experimentation that would later influence mainstream cinema.

By the 1990s, the rise of independent filmmaking and video cassettes brought international psychological thrillers into Indian homes, inspiring local creators to adopt techniques from Hitchcockian suspense and European auteur cinema.