Vikram Bhatt Tells Us About the Real Story That Inspired ‘Ghost’

Vikram Bhatt’s next Ghost releases on 18 October. 

(Photo: Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt has gifted many horror films to the Indian audience. However, he counts his upcoming Ghost as one of the scariest films that he has worked on. The movie stars Sanaya Irani and Shivam Bhaargava. It is produced by Vashu Bhagnani.

The Quint caught up with the director to chat about the making of Ghost.

Why does horror as a genre attract you?

I don’t know why I am the only one who gets asked this question because every director more or less has his own genre. So, I don’t know why David Dhawan doesn’t get asked why he does comedy and Abbas-Mastaan don’t get asked why they do on thriller and action? I have done a lot of films in different genres like Awaara Paagal Deewana or Ghulam but I suppose for every director there’s a genre that you love to make more than the others. I suppose we are all sellers of sensation. All storytellers ultimately sell a sensation. Some people sell love, some sell tears, some sell laughter and I sell fear. I am a fear peddler.

How does VFX play a part in the direction of a horror film these days?

With the coming of the OTTs and international horror content, there is a kind of... see VFX is one thing but there is also a sophistication of story that people want. They also want to think for themselves. They just don’t want things dumbed down. You can’t underestimate the intelligence of the audience. The audience likes to piece things together and that I think is the most important thing. And then Ghost is the first time that I have made a film on a real-life incident.

How did you discover this true story?

I keep doing my research and this was in a show called The Haunting. It was about this man called Arne Johnson, who in 1981 was tried for murder. He had apparently killed his landlord. When it came to the case, his defence attorney said that not he but the devil inside him had murdered him. So this man was possessed. It was a huge media trial and the media called it ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ case. Now this man was involved in the exorcism of an 11-year-old boy which also incidentally had the Conjuring couple Ed and Lorraine Warren. They said that he kept telling this young boy, “Evil inside, come into me.” There were some witnesses to the fact that he was possessed but of course the judge did not rule in the favour of the supernatural.

That got me thinking that what if there was such a situation where your house is haunted and you haven’t murdered and you are framed for murder. What are you going to do? I thought it was a subject for today and people will be really interested to know what’s the connection between the legal system and the supernatural.

Do you think with Ghost the tropes are still similar and restricted to jump-scares? at least that’s what the trailer makes a viewer think.

But that’s the way horror movies are. Annabelle was jump scares. Conjuring was jump scares. Lights Out was also jump scares. So jump scares are a part of the horror genre. When people come to see a horror film, they come to get scared. You are buying a ticket for getting scared. And I’m going to scare you.

What level of involvement do you have in the sound effects?

I do all of the sound in rough myself first and then I give it to the agencies. Then we work on the final recording and we take a long time in doing that. It took a month and a half for us to do just the sound of this film.

Do you think that love scenes and songs are important for a story like Ghost?

In India we have a different art form. It’s not like every film has moved away from that and I’m the only one doing it. It’s part of the Indian art form. Maybe there are sections that like to watch horror films similar to what Hollywood makes but they are already making them so why should I?

But then we have a movie like Badlaa which didnot have music as well and did great numbers too.

Yeah but it didn’t cross 100 crores. There is popular cinema that exists in a country, which we call the commercial cinema which has a love story, emotions, songs. You can make it without that I’m not saying you can’t. But music has always been the mainstay of our cinema.