Carlos Bardem, Peter Webber, Anu Vaidyanathan Set Avani Films Slate

U.K. and India-based production outfit Avani Films is developing an eclectic slate including three feature films and a limited drama series.

Avani Films is led by Anu Vaidyanathan, a filmmaker, comedian and previously a long-course triathlete representing India. The company’s output, which includes several shorts by Vaidyanathan, is now expanding into longer form content.

Carlos Bardem (Prime Video series “El Cid,” Netflix’s “The Chosen One”) will headline English-language comedy feature “Mis(s)chief,” described by him as a “rollercoaster ride through the life and times of a female filmmaker.” “It speaks to the agency of women auteurs who are balancing so many worlds within one life and having fun while at it,” Bardem said.

Written and directed by Vaidyanathan, “Mis(s)chief” will follow a mother of two trying to succeed as a filmmaker while navigating a flailing marriage, the odd bullet from a gangster she has unwittingly managed to annoy and a never-ending schedule of her children’s homework. Vaidyanathan said that the film “essays a modern Phileas Fogg [the peripatetic traveller in Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days”], re-born in a Tamilian woman’s view of the world.”

British filmmaker Peter Webber (“Girl With a Pearl Earring”) is on board as executive producer and Emmy-nominated casting director Nancy Bishop will assemble an international cast.

“Anu has a keen comedic sense…