Onkar Kulkarni and Ismat Tahseen (BOMBAY TIMES; October 30, 2019)

BIPASHA BASU: ‘What happened at Mukesh Mills while shooting was a scary experience’
“None of my spooky stories are related to the horror films that I’ve done. I was shooting for Footpath (2003) at Mukesh Mills, in Mumbai. It’s known to be spooky and there are many stories around it that the people in the film business keep talking about. It was during the day and I was supposed to shoot on the second floor of the premises. Generally, I don’t forget my dialogues and I was alone in one room and there was this very long track that was placed. Everyone else was in the other room, and each time I had to walk ahead and say the dialogue, it felt like something was stopping me. I knew my entire monologue by heart, yet, I kept forgetting the lines. This happened repeatedly, and that’s when my director Vikram Bhatt asked my hair stylist, ‘What is Bipasha feeling?’ Eventually, we decided that we should get out of there. They got me out of the set, and they gave me some holy water and stuff like that. I slept in the vanity van for a while and then they called for packup. The next day, the crew did a pooja there, basically so that we could continue shooting, but even the pandit who did the pooja had an accident. So, after that, we didn’t complete the scene there; we shot it at a different location. I have no explanation for it, but what happened at Mukesh Mills was a scary experience.

Also, there was another incident in Goa, where I was sharing a room with my hairstylist, at a hotel which was supposed to be spooky. We turned off the lights and went off to sleep. The AC was on and suddenly, I started feeling cold and saw that the fan was on, too. So, I asked my hairstylist, ‘Have you turned on the fan?’ She said that she didn’t do it. I asked her if the switch was by her bedside. It wasn’t. We both got up feeling really scared and wondering how the fan started, when we both didn’t do it ourselves. Then, we tried to turn the lights on, but it didn’t work. I remember how much both of us screamed. Also, just to add, I’ve done a lot of horror films, but in reality, I am a person who gets easily scared of anything. I can’t sleep alone in a room, and if I have to, I keep all the lights on. I’m quite a fattu person. But yes, I try to get over my fears by doing horror films, but not like that’s really helped.”


SUNNY LEONE: ‘I yelled at the ghost and it left me alone’
“I was shooting for one of the seasons of Splitsvilla at a palace in Rajasthan. When we retired to our rooms for the night, I had sleep paralysis. I literally had to push myself to wake up, but I felt some presence holding me down. When it repeated for the third time, I just got up and yelled, ‘Leave me alone!’ It seems this one was a kind ghost as it did leave me alone and things were back to normal.”


ADAH SHARMA: ‘I cannot forget the experience of being in a castle that is believed to be haunted’
“My real-life spooky experience happened during the making of horror movie 1920 (which released in 2008). I was scaring people while shooting for the film; I like to do that for fun, but this place, Allerton Castle, in Yorkshire, was haunted. In fact, it’s supposed to be one of the top 10 haunted castles in the world. When we went there, I was laughing and saying, ‘What nonsense, there’s no such thing,’ and then the caretakers told us stories about how the wife of the housekeeper, who had died, haunts the castle. When we reached there, we saw this huge portrait of her that’s hung on the wall, and the way the woman resembled me, it was uncanny. It was so unreal and crazy that I was really spooked out. Sometime later, I went to the rest room , and while I was trying to come out, I realised that I was locked in and even the lights just went off. No one was around, and I was wondering how I got locked in. The toilets were in the basement and the network had also gone. I was stuck down there for a good 15 minutes, without being able to reach out to anyone for help. On set, they thought that I was outside somewhere. It was scary, and I can’t forget the experience of being in a castle that is believed to be haunted. It takes a lot to scare me, but it did leave us wondering what really happened there.”


GURMEET CHOUDHARY: ‘My hairstylist was behaving like she was possessed’
Many years ago, when I was shooting for Ramayan (TV show) with my wife Debina Bonnerjee in Vadodara, on the banks of the Narmada, our hairdresser was behaving like she was possessed. We were shooting at a shamshaan ghaat. My hairstylist suddenly started crying loudly, and after a while, she started laughing loudly and talking in Gujarati. She is from the south and has never spoken in Gujarati. We asked her to stop, but she just could not. Eventually, we took her to the hotel and tried to calm her down. Even then, she did not stop shouting and crying out loudly. This happened in front of the entire unit and we still can’t forget the experience.


KRITI SANON: ‘My make-up artist felt someone was pushing her’
“When we were shooting for Dilwale (2015), my make-up artist felt an unearthly presence in her hotel room. There was a bottle of body lotion that fell, so she put it back in its place, but it fell again. She was surprised as the table wasn’t moving, nor was there any wind. Later in the night, she felt that someone was pushing her and that’s when we all were spooked out!”


TAAPSEE PANNU: ‘I heard footsteps in my hotel room’
“Firstly, I am extremely scared of ghosts and I do believe that they exist. Personally, I felt something in my room when I was staying at a hotel in Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. I had heard stories earlier of the hotel being haunted. I was alone in the room, when I heard some footsteps echoing. Since I am a scaredy-cat when it comes to ghosts, all I did was convince myself that I was imagining things and literally forced myself to sleep. There was no way I could fight a ghost!”

VARUN SHARMA: ‘I was spooked by an apparition in Manali’
“I remember one incident while travelling to Manali as a kid. There was intense fog on the road, and I was sitting ahead with the driver, when we saw a human-like figure, which disappeared in a jiffy. I was spooked out. Was it just a work of my imagination or was there someone really there? This is something that still remains unanswered. The incident feels like it just happened yesterday, and it still creeps me out. It is etched in my memory for good.”

That’s the premise of Vikram Bhatt’s next, which is inspired by a newspaper article in the UK
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 28, 2019)

Vikram Bhatt has just returned from UK having completed his film, Ghost, which is inspired by a newspaper article about how a British court allowed a matter involving spirits to be tried. “The article caught my eye because it threw up an interesting question: How does one prove the presence of spirits in a court of law? I know it’s hard for most people to believe in the supernatural world, but I know from first-hand experience that the realm exists and for me it is a reality,” says the filmmaker who spearheaded the Raaz franchise, besides making a string of horror films - 1920 and 1921, Shaapit, Haunted 3D and Creature 3D.

Quiz him on what makes Ghost different from other ghost stories given the current emphasis on novel content, and Vikram smiles, “The concept itself is novel. Karan Khanna, a politician of Indian origin in the UK, is accused of killing his wife. He tells his lawyer that a spirit committed the murder and should be tried. Where have you seen that before?”

He adds that while most of his earlier films were set in desolate places, Ghost unveils in the heart of London, amidst apartment houses and offices. “I doubt they’re haunted and if they are, no one is talking about it. Also, unlike the lyrical love stories of the past, this one takes the characters with their weaknesses and makes them meet the ghost outside while emotional ghosts plague their hearts and minds,” says the filmmaker.

The film will introduce a new pair, TV actress Sanaya Irani as defence lawyer Simran Singh, and Shivam Bhargav as Karan Khanna. “Sanaya has an emotional quotient that works well in a complex role while Shivam’s shyness adds a layer to the victimised Karan,” explains Vikram who having dabbled in the genre many times in the past, admits it’s tough to reinvent oneself. “But it’s possible if you listen to your audience. They are vocal about what they want to see and what they don’t. To believe that you are relevant when you are not, is a dangerous thing.”

Point out that while Hollywood horror films like IT, The Nun and Annabelle did good business in India, barring the Raaz series, the genre hasn’t been widely accepted here and Vikram quips, “1920 is a successful franchise.” But is there a future for horror in Indian cinema? He reasons that the world today is one big market, and unlike family dramas, period films or even romcoms, horror is a genre with an universal appeal. “Horror films are big on the digital platform too and have as much return on investment as their theatrical counterparts,” explains Vikram who turned 50 on Sunday.

So, what takes him back to horror, again and again? “Fear… I live with fear and understand fear in a way that many don’t,” he concludes. 

Elina Nayak (BOMBAY TIMES; December 9, 2017)

What was meant to be a fun, casual interaction with her fans turned ugly for Adah Sharma, recently, when one of the men in the crowd thought it was totally okay to ask her to kiss him! ‘No’, she said, firmly. But the “middle-aged, married man” went on a rant, shamelessly, and no one stopped him.

Still incensed at the whole incident, a fuming Adah recalls, “It happened when I was in Mumbai, waiting to catch a flight to Goa. Before boarding my flight, a live interaction with my fans who had come from different cities was arranged. It was there that this 30-plus, married man asked me to kiss him publicly. His audacity to ask me to kiss him was shocking enough. But even after I said ‘NO’, he had the gall to ask me, ‘Why? You kissed in Commando 2 and also had a 1-hour-45-minute kiss in Heart Attack. I’m like your brother or father — what’s the big deal? I’m asking to kiss me on my cheeks’.” Explaining why she didn’t take him to task then and there, Adah adds, “I’m usually a very positive person and I stay away from controversy. So, I didn’t react or say much else at that time. I thought there were so many other amazing fans there, who had come all the way from so many cities just to meet me. By reacting or creating a scene there, I didn’t want to ruin their experience. But later, when my friends saw my outburst on Twitter and read about the incident online, everyone asked me why I didn’t slap the shameless guy.”

Adah chose to let it go then, she took to Twitter to express her outrage when the snubbed ‘fan’ got online to troll her for “insulting” him for asking her for a “harmless kiss”. Imagine that! Wait, there’s worse. He even managed to find some like-minded people who drummed up support for him and joined in trolling the actress, proving yet again that the internet and the anonymity it offers is just what this breed of ‘ugly Indians’ need to expose what they’re really hiding under their sanskari public image. “I did not want to continue to dwell on this ugly incident, thus kept quiet. But I had to speak up for myself when the guy started trolling me for denying him a ‘harmless kiss’. But my tweets about a ‘no being a no’ and a woman’s right to decide who she will kiss or not seem to have been lost on his ilk. Soon, many joined the troll and wrote disgusting stuff like, ‘Great @adah_sharma Did you tell the same to @purijagan when he narrated you the same scene in your debut film Heart Attack? Just asking!’ or ‘It’s just a kiss, what’s the big deal?’,” says Adah.

“Well, I want to tell all those people out there again that what I do, who I kiss is my choice. It’s a woman’s choice —whether she is an actor or not! And, when I kiss on screen it’s is a character I play, that’s not the real me, not the ‘Adah Sharma’. As an actor, it’s my job to portray characters; that doesn’t mean that’s what I am doing all the time in real life. Get a life! In my debut Bollywood film 1920, I was possessed and I killed people. So, does that mean I can come kill you in real life?” she lashes out.

Adah is quick to add that a few such loonies aside, she’s happy that she has some ‘real amazing fans’ and that makes her let go of such incidents. “I have a lot of lovely, young fans, like this school girl I know from Hyderabad. I want fans like her, and all those young men and women who look up to me, to know what happened; why I said what I said, and what they too should do when they come across such incidents,” she says.

Neha Maheshwri (BOMBAY TIMES; March 3, 2017)

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 13, 2016)

Shubha Shetty-Saha (MID-DAY; April 9, 2014)

Ghost films in Bollywood first tried to gain sympathy, then moved on to being downright hilarious and are now more practical and err… somewhat domesticated.

Ghosts that remember
Popular in films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s ( read: Mahal, Bees Saal Baad and the likes), these were heroines-in-white who would die and turn into ghosts, instead of being reborn.

Their only mission was to get back to the man they loved in their previous life and scare the hell out of him.

A prototype scene: In the middle of the night, only the hero can hear a soulful song in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice emanating from somewhere in the distance. He gets out of the house and the next moment, he finds himself in the middle of a thick jungle following a vision in white.

The apparition wears her long hair open, and is sometimes equipped with a burning candle. She also looks sad, really sad. The hero has to show that he is perplexed but is also in the mood to help her out of her misery. But then she disappears now and then and reappears on a swing or some such random place, to coolly continue with the next para of the sad song.

The foolish hero spends the night anxiously looking for the woman who’s here one minute and absent the next. Talk about some women not being able to make up their minds.

Bhatt films’ sexy ghosts



Mukesh Bhatt produced Raaz and Raaz 2, and then Vikram Bhatt carried the horror lineage forward with 1920, 1920 Evil Returns, Haunted, and other similar films. The Bhatts like their ghosts to belong to the scantily clad, sexy variety. Most of these horror and sex films worked well at the BO.

A prototype scene: The hero and heroine are embroiled in hot, intimate scenes with a lot of kisses thrown in and the “ ghost” is watching them from a distance.

The cult Ramsay movies



The Ramsays, who can be easily called the horror papas of Bollywood, gave us a series of successful films which might have not evoked fear but nevertheless managed to entertain big time with their generous doses of sex, masala and action. Ramsays weren’t sexists when it came to ghosts. Their ghosts were both male and female, whereas most other filmmakers preferred women ghosts.

Prototype scenes:
1. A semi-nude lady is taking a shower in a big, isolated house with all its doors thrown open, and the ghost is just about to strike her.
2. A group of youngsters or a couple in love get stranded in a jungle and knock on the door of a big, eerie-looking bungalow. Even as the background music reaches a deafening crescendo, an old, ugly housekeeper with a bad hair day opens the door. He has a menacing- looking lantern in his hand.

The really scary ones 
Say what you want about him, but no one understood ghosts better than Ram Gopal Verma. Films such as Raat and Bhoot only reiterate this. Remember that theatre scene in Raat or that truly scary one in Bhoot, when Urmila Matondkar catches Barkha Madam staring at her through the bedroom door when she wakes up? Brrr…. Give us more of these We would love to see more sublime versions of ghosts like the ones Dimple Kapadia and Hema Malini played in Gulzar’s film, Lekin.

Recent versions
In recent times, the ghost has become mild and kind with Amitabh Bachchan playing the benevolent Bhootnath. Ekta Kapoor’s Marathi- speaking ghosts in the films, Ragini MMS and Ragini MMS2, however, continue to be menacing and destructive.

Disappeared into thin air?
These girls played ghosts and then vanished from the film scene:
. Malini Sharma, who played the ghost in Raaz.
. Barkha Madan, who played the titular ghost in the film, Bhoot.
Ramsays weren’t sexists when it came to ghosts. Their ghosts were both male and female, whereas most other filmmakers preferred women ghosts