Bollywood horror blends with other genres, top stars sign up

Scriptwriters are now combining love, humour, social issues into horror stories

New Delhi: Bollywood horror is evolving beyond simple tales of ghosts, haunted houses and possession stories. Filmmakers are learning to give a spin to the tale. New sub-genres are being created blending horror with comedy, romance, mythology and more.

Horror comedies, Horror films with social message, and mythological twist to supernatural lore are all plot ideas that fall under the broader genre of horror.

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For long, the genre was all about B and C-list actors, given the low production costs. The scene briefly changed when Ram Gopal Varma made Bhoot, casting Ajay Devgn, Urmila Matondkar, Fardeen Khan and Rekha in the film. However, that was a one-off case.

Lately, top stars as Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif, Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon, Yami Gautam, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ishaan Khatter and Rajkummar Rao have signed up to go on a scare trip.

Bhediya, a werewolf saga of Hollywood gets a ‘desi’ twist. The teaser of the film was released by actors Kriti Sanon and Varun Dhawan on their Instagram page. In the teaser, a man is seen turning into a werewolf on a full moon night. The film is directed by Amar Kaushik and is slated to release on April 14. Roohi is a horror comedy featuring Rajkummar Rao and Janhvi Kapoor and will release on March 11.

Phone Bhoot could be our version of Ghostbusters. The horror comedy starring Katrina Kaif, Ishaan Khatter and Siddhant Chaturvedi is said to be “one-stop shop for all bhoot-related problems”. While the release date of this ‘desi’ exorcism hasn’t been announced, the film has already gone on floors and is currently in production in Udaipur. The much-hyped Bhoot Police is said to be “spooky adventure comedy” and stars Saif Ali Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Yami Gautam and Arjun Kapoor. The team had started shooting in November 2020 which took place all over Himachal Pradesh.