Horror has been his forte. And with that he has also managed to rake in the moolah at the BO.He has pushed boundaries with this genre too as he pioneered in the field of stereoscopic 3D for the first time in India and his film Haunted - 3D is the first one in this regard. Needless to say, the film went on to become the highest grossing Hindi horror film. Now, it's time for director and producer Vikram Bhatt to look at horror on the 'small' screen. And he is directing a horror TV show titled Haunted Nights.
So, what made him choose the small screen? "When I was offered the show, I quite liked the idea. And things followed naturally then." In the midst of saas-bahu serials, does he think that horror as a genre will work on television? "There have been horror shows earlier. When a person watches horror on TV, he has to make the environment conducive. If I am watching a news programme on television and I am concentrating on it, I will make sure there are no noises around me. Watching a horror show is like that," Vikram says.
Does he think that television watching is a family oriented matter and that's why soaps based on family drama click? "Not really," he says. "These days there's a huge gap between male viewers and female viewers. Television viewing is fractured now. So, we can't now group viewers as one entity now. The commercials are also placed on TV keeping this in mind."
As a director, he has been lucky with horror as a genre. But unlike Hollywood, horror films are yet to mark their mark in the Hindi film industry, "Horror is a difficult genre and it's not easy to make films in this genre on a consistent basis. We can't make a horror film with a huge star cast. Moreover, not many producers are ready to put in their money on horror films. Horror is certainly not a mainstream genre and you can't have normal dance, song routine in horror films," says Vikram.
How easy or difficult has it been for him to switch over to small screen? "It's challenging. But then a creative person needs to push his limits, to explore new horizons. Workwise, it has been a different experience."
For a director who has been in the industry for years and made his debut in the industry in 1992 with Janam has seen the industry changing in many ways. "Bollywood has changed so much in the last decade. There are now multiplexes, the whole process of marketing, distribution has undergone so much of transformation. In fact, the changes have been very vital," he says.
The director who loves his share of horror on screen, believes in 'ghosts." Does he read ghost stories? "Not really. Of course, I have read Ruskin Bond's ghost stories."
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