After bursting on the television scene with Balika Vadhu and following it up with Sasural Simar Ka, Avika Gor switched gears to Telugu and Kannada movies. Her heart, however, was set on Hindi cinema. Luckily, it’s Bollywood calling Gor as she headlines 1920: Horrors Of The Heart, the latest instalment in filmmaker Vikram Bhatt’s 1920 franchise.

“Vikram sir was so keen on having me in the film that he didn’t conduct any auditions for my role. I did not expect calls from Bollywood filmmakers this soon. I was thinking of continuing in the south [film industry] for a while, so that people could take notice of me,” says the actor.

In the past, Gor has done some small-budget Hindi movies, but she believes that the Krishna Bhatt-helmed venture might just be the ticket to Bollywood. She knows she is in safe hands with Vikram, who comes with years of experience in crafting horror movies.

“Most filmmakers come with the know-it-all attitude, but Vikram sir is not one of them. He is still learning and trying to grow. On set, when we shot the film with LED screens, he’d practice a lot before we went on floors,” shares the actor, who will be seen alongside Rahul Dev and Barkha Bisht in this horror flick.

She adds that Vikram upped the ante by employing Unreal Engine—an advanced 3D creation tool for photoreal visuals and immersive experiences—to shoot the horror thriller.

“This is the first time I shot something like this, with screens, and without an actual set. I have done a horror comedy before, so I had an idea of how these sequences are shot. But it was challenging to make it look convincing,” says Gor, who also turned producer this year with the Telugu film, Popcorn.