Are horror films threatened in India? Going by the fate of the recent horror films such as Vikram Bhatt’s Hacked last month and Bhoot this week, the normal horror tropes and standard scares have had their (Fri) day.
Bhoot a prestigious Karan Johar production registered a paltry Rs 2 crores nationwide on Monday.
No wonder Ram Gopal Varma the master of celluloid spooks, has decided to stay away from the horror genre.
“Isn’t there enough horror all around us in every sphere of life? I think the way that a horror film will work in contemporary times is if it is set in a normal identifiable comfortable setting,” reasons Ramu whose Bhoot in 2003 set a new benchmark in filmy frights by taking the horror genre to a classy level that it never attained before, or after. Varma’s Bhoot starred Rekha, Victor Bannerjee, Tanuja Ajay Devgan, Urmila Matondkar …Never again did the horror genre in Bollywood acquire the same classy upmarket aura as Varma’s Bhoot.
In fact, Varma hoped Karan Johar’s Bhoot would encore the feat of the original and had gladly given over the title Bhoot to Johar. Now the intended franchise lies exposed as a fraudulent if not farcical fling with generating fear out of flimsy plot devices.
