Men of mystery get their hair ripened at youth while the greys within take a hold of their mind. Sometimes possessing them like ghosts of events and ghoulfriends of the past. These men are up to the brim with the raazs of a 1,000 skeletons and rebooted cobwebs. Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt is one such, who churns out stories from his experiences - some exhilarating, some haunting. Audacious and eyepopping, nonetheless. His demons are his alone, but his stories are secrets that delight. Awaiting his upcoming Raaz Reboot, he tells us how the deep secrets of his life have been his enemy of love. Let this mystery unfold...

Your films mostly delve in subjects that are discussed behind closed doors. It's risky, but you don't mind taking those chances.
I have always worn my heart on my sleeve and I have paid a price for that. There's a line in the film that says, 'You are what you hide and not what you show'. I know that a fairy tale is more saleable and people like to see such films, but I like exploring the darker side of life. They say that in music, there are two kinds of people - those who like major notes and those who like minor notes. So, I think I am a minor note guy.

Are your stories a culmination of your life experiences and all that you have been through?
For the last 10 years, I have had a great spiritual journey that has shaken me up, too. You can say it was miraculous, but I don't talk about it much because I don't want people to think that I am talking rubbish. So when I am making a movie, for me, it's as real as you and me having this conversation. Human beings, through time, have never believed what they cannot see. Do you know that Galileo was under house arrest and he had to retract his statement that the earth is not the centre of our solar system, because that went against religious traditions? So, the more we discover, the more we realise how wrong we were. I know that people think demons and dark forces don't exist, some even believe God doesn't exist. I have felt love universally and I know it's there because I have seen it. The fact that I make commercial films out of all my experiences is another matter.

But doesn't the dark side of life scare you?
Believe it or not, I am very scared of horror films. It took me a lot to see Conjuring and I haven't yet seen Conjuring 2. If I did not feel fear, perhaps I wouldn't be able to make you feel fear through my films. I think that if I don't have a good sense of humour, I possibly cannot make good comedy films. If I am not romantic at heart, I can't really make romantic films.

Speaking of romance, are you a romantic at heart?
I would like to think so, but I haven't been able to keep relationships. I am a man filled with contradictions. I am someone who needs a lot of space. There was a time when I thought that there was something wrong with people around me. Years later, I realised that it's not them, but me. There's something definitely off with me when it comes to romance. I figured that I like this whole wining and dining the girl, but only for a bit. Suddenly, I get so absorbed in my work that I don't want to do anything else and the woman in my life can't obviously deal with it. Over the years, I have come to understood that it's not the women, but me who is not stable in relationships.

But have you tried working on it?
Basically, I've come to terms with the fact that I will have to live a huge part of my life alone. I think I have become one of the characters of my films. Now, it's very difficult for me to get along with somebody, and it's not because I am impatient or I fight. It's just that I don't know how to prioritise. If a man has eight things to do and one of them is romance, and he prioritises it at number seven or eight, then there's something definitely wrong. So there, that's the problem with me.

But living alone is also not easy, right? There are times when you need someone...
Sometimes when I am having dinner with my parents, I think what would happen to me if they aren't around. It scares me. I have a daughter who really pampers me and knows how weird I am, but even she has a life of her own. So I know that I am going to be this lonely old man. But I hope that I am not a disgruntled lonely old man.

Don't you miss having a companion?
If I can't keep something going, then I shouldn't let it take off. I have realised that there are no bad people; I just feel that sometimes, two good people don't get along. Today, when I look back, I have nothing but a lot of respect for all the women who I have dated. Somewhere, there was a basic goodness in all of them, but I believe that secrets are the enemy of love. I married early in life, and we were a very young couple. I thought it was childish of my (then) wife to put restrictions on me, and even I was immature at handling it. Then I started hiding what I was feeling and that secret became the third person in our relationship. When you are not happy with the person you are married to and you can't tell her that, it becomes a secret. I had an extramarital affair, which was again a secret. It was not Sushmita's (Sen) fault, because I was the one with secrets. Even Ameesha (Patel) is a great girl, but when she was not happy, I told her, 'Listen, two people come together to be happy and if you are not, then you should find happiness elsewhere.''

Do you think secrets are born out of a sense of guilt?
The point is that you can be honest and hurt a person or be dishonest and hurt yourself everyday. If you love somebody, then you will have to understand whether guilty or not, secrets will crawl out sooner or later. Secrets have been the enemy of love through time, and I have learnt it the hard way. That is exactly what Raaz Reboot is about; it's the secrets that you keep from one another that create trouble. This film has a crazy plot where all three characters have secrets.

What gives you courage to be so open about your life? Don't you fear being judged?
How many battles can you fight? The first battle you fight is with yourself. I think everything starts going downhill when you create an image of yourself. I already have a problem living with my real self, so to create somebody else is too much to bear. I would rather be myself with all my faults than become someone perfect and suffer the consequences.

You have gone through a fair share of heartbreak in life. How do you cope with it and come out of it?
I am a huge introvert, I barely have friends and I don't go out and socialise. So I possibly can't isolate myself more than I already do. I think I have come to a stage where I feel that I am almost an emotional masochist.

You like working with new talent. Or do you think the wait for a bigger line-up is too much?
I have had my biggest hits without stars. My answer to this is simple and it's nothing to do with stars. It's my impatience. When I have an idea, I don't want to wait, or else I will lose my marbles. One person I have a lot of respect for is Sanjay Leela Bhansali, as I think that man has sustained enthusiasm. I can see the amount of work he puts into every frame; I clearly don't have that tenacity.

You are making short films and your first one is an erotic one, along the lines of 50 Shades Of Grey. Do you think the youth will get shocked by the audacity of your subject?
I think that youngsters are ready for such concepts. Today, premarital sex is not even a discussion amongst the youth anymore; it was a huge deal years ago. So you can imagine how progressive they are. They are also non-judgemental, and today, conversations about virginity are not a big deal.

If you are given a chance to reboot your life, what would you change about it?
I think that the worst thing to do is hurt someone. So if I had to press the reboot button, I would go back and undo all the hurt I have caused to the people I love. I am the kind of person who goes crazy apologising if I know that I have hurt somebody. Professionally, I have made some good films and some obnoxious films, too, but they were enjoyable. Whenever I have made films for money, they have always gone wrong. So, if I was to correct something, I would change the films that I did for money.