Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 4, 2016)

Five years after he surprised the box-office with Haunted 3D, Vikram Bhatt is all set to take the franchise forward. The writer-director reveals that the script has been with him for a while since Part 2 was supposed to roll soon after Raaz 3. "But then ASA, the company I was working for, folded up and all planned projects came to a standstill. It was only recently that I picked up the 'Haunted' conversation again with producers Arun and Vivek Rangachari and we decided to go ahead with the sequel," informs Vikram, adding that if all goes well, Haunted 2 should kick off later this year.

Vikram, for whom the setting and look of a film is as important as the characters and the twists in the plot, wants the story to unfold on a beautiful, desolate beach somewhere in England, Scotland or Ireland. "I remember the beach from David Lean's Oscar-winning 1970 epic romance, Ryan's Daughter. Rosy Ryan is on a cliff high above the Atlantic, in an isolated Irish village, when a gust of wind snatches her parasol. It goes sailing down towards the ocean and is retrieved in the nick of time by the mentally impaired Michael, who reunites her with her parasol on the beach. The scene left an indelible impression and now has me scouting for a similar beach," smiles Vikram, who'd like to shoot the film in autumn.

This Haunted doesn't take off from the earlier one but is a fresh story about a ghost whisperer whose gift of conversing with spirits turns out to be a cross she has to bear. "Like the original, I've woven in a love story with a magical end," he says.

Haunted had revolutionised Hindi cinema by bringing in 3D, Vikram believes that since our audience does not care for the immersive 3D experience, the technology has run its course. "They have had enough things thrown at them in the last five years and today, a producer would think twice about investing in 3D. As of now I'm not thinking of introducing any technological innovation but never say never," he shrugs.

The earlier film resurrected the career of Mahaakshay Chakraborty aka Mimoh. This time, since the film revolves around the girl, he would like to take an established actress. "But in my quest for one, I wouldn't want to miss out on the season since I have a particular look in mind. I can see a white beach with grey skies and seagulls flying. In that case, I would go ahead with a new face," he signs off.

V Lakshmi (BOMBAY TIMES; February 2, 2014)

Bollywood director Nikhil Advani and actress Shruti Haasan recently voiced their objection to the release of their D-Day in Tamil as Dawood. While Nikhil levelled allegations against the film’s co-producers, the Rangacharis — Arun and Vivek — for selling the rights of the film without his knowledge, Shruti issued a press statement saying she was dissociating herself from the film’s Tamil version as it was being made without her consent, which she said was a “clear breach of contract”.

However, the spokesperson of the Rangacharis’ production house tells us that as soon as the change in the title was brought to their notice by the director, they addressed the issue with the distributors.

 “D-Day was co-produced by us and Nikhil Advani’s production house; while we funded the project, the creative of the film was Nikhil’s prerogative. Even the contracts that were signed by the actors were with his company. The distributors for the film were finalised in concurrence with Nikhil and the same was shared with him and his company via e-mail in 2013. The distributors were given the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu India rights in consultation with them. Nikhil brought to our notice the change in title and inappropriate posters on January 29, and we immediately addressed the issue. We got in touch with the distributors through the right channels and got it rectified. But, we were shocked to see defamatory articles in the press the next day. Factually, whatever has been said is wrong because the very next day after Nikhil spoke to us, the title was changed to D-Day and the earlier posters were recalled. According to the standard distribution process, we gave the Hindi creatives to the distributors in the faith that those would be used. The distributors don’t show us the posters before they publicise the film. And as far as the consultation with actors goes, Nikhil and his company have to inform us as they were the ones who had signed the contracts,” he says.

“Nikhil knew that steps had been taken on Wednesday, the day he spoke to us, and he even agreed to what was being done. The title was changed and Hindi posters were used from the next day. He sent an advisory notice, drafted by a legal team, accusing us of a few things. He was aware of the commercial understanding, and I think he was trying to save face with Shruti,” says Vivek, who’s now consulting his legal team for further action. Adds Vivek, “Nikhil and his team went through every contract we drew up and now, he's saying he is unaware of them and putting the blame on us. We will give them an appropriate answer.” 

According to him, the film might release in Tamil as D-Day on February 7.