I hope to become a reclusive writer: Vikram Bhatt

Vikram Bhatt says the legacy of family films can’t go on because the demand has changed now. Unfazed by the box office fate of his latest film, he talks about ‘Raaz 3’
You finally made a U/A film?
There is a funny story associated with “Dangerous Ishq”. My daughter – when she was 13, I was making “1920”, then I met “Shaapit”, then I made “Haunted”, and so, she kept telling me ‘Dad when will you make a U/A film that I can take my friends to watch in the theatre?’.So I promised her that after “Haunted”, I will make a U/A film. And now that I have made one, she is 18. So she was like, ‘Kya matlab ab U/A film ka?’
But jokes apart, do you think the film didn’t do well because you took a not very known hero, and an aged actress who made this her comeback vehicle?
I think today the audience gets a truckload of their stars everywhere – whether it is Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan, everyone’s on TV. If you don’t get them on TV, you have Youtube, and so many other platforms. I remember a time when I was younger, when if you had to see an actor, you had to go to the theatre and watch a film. That’s not the case today. So, what has happened is that the star making the film run has become a rarity. In today’s time, the subject of the film has become very important.
You are not the first director to say that the script is paramount, and that things have changed now. So, are directors actually looking at stories now?
Yes, I think so and that would be a relief if that happens. I have, in the past few years, made films with newcomers. In some cases, even with actors who have not done well, so for me the subject was always paramount – because I knew I had nothing to fall back on, barring the script. If “1920” has done well, or if “Haunted” did, it was only because of the story. You had no crutch. You know that this is it. And once you get used to that kind of writing, storytelling, then even if you have a Karisma Kapoor in the film, you still don’t want to risk it. You still think let’s make the script paramount.
But for someone who honed his skillsassisting romantic movies being made (like “Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke”, for instance), this major shift to horror/supernatural is quite a shift.
It’s not that I am not cut out to make a romantic film – I can very easily make one. But I think first cinema was just cinema, now there’s the business of cinema. And like every business, branding is important now. A trip to the multiplex today is such an expensive affair, that unless and until the viewer knows what to expect, they are not going to go. And branding helps there – and if you look at it very closely, every successful filmmaker today has a brand – not just his name as the brand, but in terms of what they can expect from him. When you say Madhur Bhandarkar, you can say it is going to be slice of life, an expose kind of film, when you say Mahesh Bhatt, you know what to expect. Ditto for a Karan Johar, Rohit Shetty. Similarly, you know that from Vikram Bhatt, it is going to be a horror story. Now, that is brand that helps me even before my film releases. Now, if I am going to confuse the audience and suddenly make a romcom, then I come between a ‘kind’ of film. So, I have a company, through which I produce films, and make films that which are not ‘my kind of films’. And so, I have the best of both the worlds.
Now about your kind of films, let’s say a filmmaker like Ram Gopal Varma – he also makes movies of the same genre. So, where or what is the USP of your film? You seem to have a higher success ratio. Have you seen his films?
I have seen “Phoonk 1”, I saw “Raat”, “Bhoot”… not all his films, though.
So, answer the question.
That’s a very mean question.
No, it’s not. It’s curiosity. The genre is the same, the subject matter is also the same from a filmmaker’s angle.
It’s not fair for me to comment on someone else’s work. But I can comment on my work and I can tell you that all my films, horror and thriller, are made on a very intense emotional spine. “Raaz”, “1920”, “Haunted” was a love story, “Dangerous Ishq” is also a love story – and I think in India, right from the time of “Mahal” and “Bees Saal Baad” and “Kohra”, there used to be always a very human story behind the horror story. We are not a country of slashers, we’re not a country of “Friday The 13th” or a “Scream”. I think in this country, if you have five picnickers being hacked one after the other, it won’t work. Because we don’t understand the absence of an emotional motive; for a film to work in India, the emotional motivation of the characters is very important. Just because a movie is horror, doesn’t mean it needs to have cardboard people. It has to be a story of feeling people. How will I feel for the character without identifying with it? If I don’t know you, how will I feel scared for you? You can only feel scared for someone you know and love. You will be intrigued, you’ll want to know, but there will be no connection otherwise.
But where was your connection with this genre? Your grandfather (Vijay Bhatt) made films on quite the opposite themes, and you never felt the pressure to do what he did?
My grandfather made films on God, I make it on the devil, so, I wonder what he would say if he was alive. He’d probably disown me. But well, we still make good and bad films – we still make the good versus the evil films all the time and I still have the “HanumanChalisa” in my film, and “Dangerous Ishq” has a huge religious connotation to it. My grandfather and I have spent some very nice times together and after my grandmom passed away, I shared his room with him and had the good fortune of listening to stories of “Baiju Bawra” and “Ram Rajya” – the only film Mahatma Gandhi saw – and “Himalay Ki Godh Mein”. And it is strange that Karisma’s mother Babita worked with my grandfather in a film called “Banphool” as a heroine – my grandfather was the director and my father was the cameraman. My father is the cameraman of “Dangerous Ishq” too. But legacy of film families can’t go on like that – the demands have changed, audiences’ perceptions have changed. I don’t think if I make a film called “Prahlad”, it’s going to work today.
Isn’t it odd the father being the cameraman, having to listen to the director, who’s the son, and work as per his orders?
My father did not work with me till I became successful. And “Fareb” was my first hit film – so, it was after that that I started working with him. I remember I was on the set of “Kasoor”, and we were losing light – and we had to shoot really fast in Switzerland. I just broke the shots down so that we finish everything in 20 minutes. No one knew what the hell I was doing because I was shooting completely out of the context, but I was shooting according to the light. And I clearly remember – we packed up and were going back to the hotel when my father said, ‘You know your job’, and I said, ‘Yes, of course I know my job, I’m six films old, what do you think?’ So he started laughing and said, ‘You’ll always be my boy, but when did you learn all this?’ Of course, after that we’ve done tons of films together – all films together, in fact.
You also sort of brought in 3D to Indian screens in a big way with “Haunted”.
But films after “Haunted” have squandered that opportunity by carelessly converting to 3D. I worked very hard with foreign technicians to get the cameras to shoot it in 3D. Some films after that tried to capitalise on that, but ended up doing a bad job. With the result, I have to once again prove that 3D is not what you have seen, but something different. I would like to say that I am re-introducing 3D. It’s unfair that sometimes filmmakers want to ride a new thing and actually for lack of any other word, “fool” the audience.
“Dangerous Ishq” is done with now, what next?
I have finished shooting “Raaz 3”, so that will be next. After that, I have some films of my company that I have to release and do the producer bit, and after that… I don’t know.
Producer, writer, director – which is your preferred role?
I love writing. Given a choice, after directing for all these years, and if given an army of talented directors, I would not direct at all. I have been directing for 20 years and there are some things that get to me now. When it’s very hot in the sun, and I am shooting, I want to go home. I am not enjoying it anymore. When we shoot in the night – especially when we were shooting in last year, it was cold, and it was desert cold. At four in the morning, I did not like filmmaking so much. I wanted to go home. I was like a little kid. So, my feeling is – my prediction about myself – is that my outings will get fewer and far between.
And?
I hope to become a reclusive writer. I love reading, I love writing, I love watching American dramas, I am addicted to them. I spend a lot of time with my daughter. That’s it. Lead a boring life.
You don’t think of romance? Do you think you are past that age?
I haven’t. I mean, I don’t think I am past that age, but the girls think I have. So, I don’t get many indecent proposals these days.