Is Bollywood, scared of the 'Horror'?
We all are shit scared to watch a horror film, but we still watch it. The sole reason for doing so is that it keeps us on the edge of our seats, all the time. We many times don't care what the story holds for us but if it has some great moments, that can scare us even after the movie is done, that's some 'paisawasool factor' right there; and if such a film has a great storyline, nothing like it.
The last horror movie I saw was 'Pari: not a fairy tale', and it intrigued me to this basic question, what happens to this genre when it comes to Bollywood?
Producer Actor Anushka Sharma, putting her faith in this project and genre tried to revolutionize the horror industry again, but sadly all the efforts and money went in vain, yet again.
A few years back we could hear Bipasha Basu saying it in the media...
and taking the flag of the horror genre and before that Director-Producer Ram Gopal Verma was the one claiming the seat, these were some good opportunities in for the industry to gauge these areas but we all know what happened. They failed, yet again.
This thought just made me want to address this subject, about the fading face of the horror genre in India and its reasons/effects.
As we all know Bollywood is one big industry producing films of almost every genre every year yet out of these only a small percentage of films fall in the 'Horror' category. What is the problem? Why we are so less interested in horror? Is it the movies or is it us? My guess is both the industry and the audience are responsible. Let's have an overlook.
Raaz(2002), directed by Vikram Bhatt, starring Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea & Ashutosh Rana was one big step in this genre, it was one of the first high budget horror films and performed decently on the box office.
Next came, Bhoot(2003), starring Urmila Matondkar & Ajay Devgan, just next year after we had seen Raaz and it restored some of our faith in this genre back.
We were served different meals both the times, hence, we were less hungry for horror. Since the screenplays were very different, one was rooted in an old Haveli and the other was in a next-door suburban apartment, the landscapes were entirely different.
More such works were taking shapes and filmmakers were trying new screenplays to capture the attention of Indian audiences, in these attempts we could see movies like Darna Mana Hai, Darna Zaroori Hai, Kaal, Vastu Shastra etc.
But something happened after, the horror genre started fading its darkness, as far as I can see the number game took over; the years from 2004 till almost this year, the numbers are so heavily ruling the Bollywood fortune that the narratives have somewhere blurred in these fogs.
Many more attempts, such as Darr: The Mall, Aatma, Pizza etc. were made in between but all went in vain, probably the numbers that we discussed, were still deciding fortunes.
As is till 2010, the horror genre had lost its luster and many horror scripts were shelved, only a few amateur production houses tried their hands on this genre, hoping to make it big in the industry and the Indian psyche. Again, useless!
We had moved on, looking at the sociological equations of those times the country was high on its new media innovations, the internet, and its power to consume the entertainment industry as Galactus would do with whole planets. Not just us, many entertainment markets were fighting this giant
invader and were making films that are up to the mark.
The Indian audience were now exposed to something magical, no not Netflix, Torrents. Hence, the eyeballs were shifting towards world cinema.
Although we had watched Exorcist (1973) and The Shining (1980) and so on, the digital evolution exploded us with films like Insidious, Paranormal Activity, Mirrors etc. all coming in the years 2010-2012.
In short, our thirst was answered, it was everything we were looking for in the horror genre and international cinema was serving it perfectly. In coming years, we started following the trend, it was about the story now and also about 'who can scare us more?!'
Hence, the producers of these films turned them into franchises; letting us know, that this will not stop.
There was something very amazing happening with us, we an audience very cynical about our films was accepting, more so, believing in these stories. One reason could be that the stories were about an unknown territory to the Indian audiences, we hardly had any idea about these places and the nature of paranormal existing there.
Whereas it seems as if Bollywood was falling short on stories so it turned to the numbers again and in 2012 produced movies from the same franchises that were a hit when they came like Raaz3, 1920: Evil Returns, Bhoot Returns etc. A big facepalm for the Indian audiences.
The year 2012 did something great to us as audiences, it made us more evolved. It was the same year when 'The Avengers' was with us and we had started believing in cinematic universes; we were believing in the fact that movies can be more than just some stand alone and more than something having a 'Three Act' structure.
Producers Tony De Rosa Crud, Peter Safran (The Safran Company) and Rob Coleman were few of the visionaries who just latched upon this phenomenon of cinematic universes and in 2013 came up with 'The Conjuring' connecting it with 'Annabelle' in 2014 and more in the coming future creating a similar universe but in a more dark, more scary canvas.
Bollywood still fighting its socio-political problems, could only produce Ek Thi Dayan, 3G etc., there were certain innovations such as Go Goa Gone, Creature, Ragini MMS2 etc. but we had tasted blood.
Bollywood now started with the best it can do 'Jugaad', it sidelined itself and thought to take the riding benefit of this genre mixing it with already established and money-making franchises, during this time it produced films like Ragini MMS2, Alone, Raaz Reboot etc., a mix of adult-horror; similarly Golmaal Again, Bhoothnath Returns, Great Grand Masti etc., a mix of comedy-horror genre.
Not so smart Bollywood! Wrong Step.
Few worked, few didn't, mostly didn't, but 2018 saw a dramatic change, a film that was talking about a very near believable concept surfaced for the Indian audiences.
Yes! PARI: Not a Fairy Tale, was a great movie as far as the story and concept are concerned it had no scare tactic, no jarring background score, no cliched jump scares, no excessive conversation between characters or dramatic ‘possessed by evil spirit’ performances, the movie was just unsettling for many.
But it performed the same way a superhero movie performs in India, which I had written about in my previous blog 'Why India will never have a real superhero?'. Check the link below, if you've not read it.
But if I was granted one wish I would have asked for Radhika Apte to play 'Pari' in this movie, the performance could have gone to a whole new dimension. But, it's all numbers and business, so who shares a piece of bread these days? Isn't it?
Anyway, horror is still a struggling genre in this country and still, the audiences hesitate to go and watcha horror if they don't see Bipasha Basu or Sunny Leone or Anushka Sharma on its Posters.
But as an Indian, I will not lose hope, I still believe that we will make an amazing horror someday despite our beliefs, someone somewhere will write a story so interesting that we can't help but be scared by it, and I also believe that we will soon be making a cinematic universe entry, a grand entry like Bahubali in the horror genre. My fingers are crossed and eyes wide open so that when that happens, I don't get a jump scare on my sofa. Till then let's enjoy what we have.
Until next time.
Aakash
Ps.
Let me know how did you like it and as I always say, its all open to suggestions and criticism.
Let's have a conversation, a healthy debate on what do you think, you agree or disagree, whats that brain and heart of your's are telling you.
Do contact if you want to have a talk or just want to have a light-hearted conversation. Till then please like, comment and subscribe the blog, I am trying to write three blogs a week.
Will really appreciate your support!
Cheers, Take Care!
References:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/movie-reviews/pari-movie-review-anushka-sharma-s-bland-film-doesn-t-know-what-it-wants-to-bew/story-INenPNu9IZFrNxvkYg1bgJ.html
The last horror movie I saw was 'Pari: not a fairy tale', and it intrigued me to this basic question, what happens to this genre when it comes to Bollywood?
Producer Actor Anushka Sharma, putting her faith in this project and genre tried to revolutionize the horror industry again, but sadly all the efforts and money went in vain, yet again.
A few years back we could hear Bipasha Basu saying it in the media...
and taking the flag of the horror genre and before that Director-Producer Ram Gopal Verma was the one claiming the seat, these were some good opportunities in for the industry to gauge these areas but we all know what happened. They failed, yet again.
This thought just made me want to address this subject, about the fading face of the horror genre in India and its reasons/effects.
As we all know Bollywood is one big industry producing films of almost every genre every year yet out of these only a small percentage of films fall in the 'Horror' category. What is the problem? Why we are so less interested in horror? Is it the movies or is it us? My guess is both the industry and the audience are responsible. Let's have an overlook.
Raaz(2002), directed by Vikram Bhatt, starring Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea & Ashutosh Rana was one big step in this genre, it was one of the first high budget horror films and performed decently on the box office.
Next came, Bhoot(2003), starring Urmila Matondkar & Ajay Devgan, just next year after we had seen Raaz and it restored some of our faith in this genre back.
We were served different meals both the times, hence, we were less hungry for horror. Since the screenplays were very different, one was rooted in an old Haveli and the other was in a next-door suburban apartment, the landscapes were entirely different.
More such works were taking shapes and filmmakers were trying new screenplays to capture the attention of Indian audiences, in these attempts we could see movies like Darna Mana Hai, Darna Zaroori Hai, Kaal, Vastu Shastra etc.
But something happened after, the horror genre started fading its darkness, as far as I can see the number game took over; the years from 2004 till almost this year, the numbers are so heavily ruling the Bollywood fortune that the narratives have somewhere blurred in these fogs.
Many more attempts, such as Darr: The Mall, Aatma, Pizza etc. were made in between but all went in vain, probably the numbers that we discussed, were still deciding fortunes.
As is till 2010, the horror genre had lost its luster and many horror scripts were shelved, only a few amateur production houses tried their hands on this genre, hoping to make it big in the industry and the Indian psyche. Again, useless!
We had moved on, looking at the sociological equations of those times the country was high on its new media innovations, the internet, and its power to consume the entertainment industry as Galactus would do with whole planets. Not just us, many entertainment markets were fighting this giant
invader and were making films that are up to the mark.
The Indian audience were now exposed to something magical, no not Netflix, Torrents. Hence, the eyeballs were shifting towards world cinema.
Although we had watched Exorcist (1973) and The Shining (1980) and so on, the digital evolution exploded us with films like Insidious, Paranormal Activity, Mirrors etc. all coming in the years 2010-2012.
In short, our thirst was answered, it was everything we were looking for in the horror genre and international cinema was serving it perfectly. In coming years, we started following the trend, it was about the story now and also about 'who can scare us more?!'
Hence, the producers of these films turned them into franchises; letting us know, that this will not stop.
There was something very amazing happening with us, we an audience very cynical about our films was accepting, more so, believing in these stories. One reason could be that the stories were about an unknown territory to the Indian audiences, we hardly had any idea about these places and the nature of paranormal existing there.
Whereas it seems as if Bollywood was falling short on stories so it turned to the numbers again and in 2012 produced movies from the same franchises that were a hit when they came like Raaz3, 1920: Evil Returns, Bhoot Returns etc. A big facepalm for the Indian audiences.
The year 2012 did something great to us as audiences, it made us more evolved. It was the same year when 'The Avengers' was with us and we had started believing in cinematic universes; we were believing in the fact that movies can be more than just some stand alone and more than something having a 'Three Act' structure.
Producers Tony De Rosa Crud, Peter Safran (The Safran Company) and Rob Coleman were few of the visionaries who just latched upon this phenomenon of cinematic universes and in 2013 came up with 'The Conjuring' connecting it with 'Annabelle' in 2014 and more in the coming future creating a similar universe but in a more dark, more scary canvas.
Bollywood still fighting its socio-political problems, could only produce Ek Thi Dayan, 3G etc., there were certain innovations such as Go Goa Gone, Creature, Ragini MMS2 etc. but we had tasted blood.
Bollywood now started with the best it can do 'Jugaad', it sidelined itself and thought to take the riding benefit of this genre mixing it with already established and money-making franchises, during this time it produced films like Ragini MMS2, Alone, Raaz Reboot etc., a mix of adult-horror; similarly Golmaal Again, Bhoothnath Returns, Great Grand Masti etc., a mix of comedy-horror genre.
Not so smart Bollywood! Wrong Step.
Few worked, few didn't, mostly didn't, but 2018 saw a dramatic change, a film that was talking about a very near believable concept surfaced for the Indian audiences.
Yes! PARI: Not a Fairy Tale, was a great movie as far as the story and concept are concerned it had no scare tactic, no jarring background score, no cliched jump scares, no excessive conversation between characters or dramatic ‘possessed by evil spirit’ performances, the movie was just unsettling for many.
But it performed the same way a superhero movie performs in India, which I had written about in my previous blog 'Why India will never have a real superhero?'. Check the link below, if you've not read it.
But if I was granted one wish I would have asked for Radhika Apte to play 'Pari' in this movie, the performance could have gone to a whole new dimension. But, it's all numbers and business, so who shares a piece of bread these days? Isn't it?
Anyway, horror is still a struggling genre in this country and still, the audiences hesitate to go and watcha horror if they don't see Bipasha Basu or Sunny Leone or Anushka Sharma on its Posters.
But as an Indian, I will not lose hope, I still believe that we will make an amazing horror someday despite our beliefs, someone somewhere will write a story so interesting that we can't help but be scared by it, and I also believe that we will soon be making a cinematic universe entry, a grand entry like Bahubali in the horror genre. My fingers are crossed and eyes wide open so that when that happens, I don't get a jump scare on my sofa. Till then let's enjoy what we have.
Until next time.
Aakash
Ps.
Let me know how did you like it and as I always say, its all open to suggestions and criticism.
Let's have a conversation, a healthy debate on what do you think, you agree or disagree, whats that brain and heart of your's are telling you.
Do contact if you want to have a talk or just want to have a light-hearted conversation. Till then please like, comment and subscribe the blog, I am trying to write three blogs a week.
Will really appreciate your support!
Cheers, Take Care!
References:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/movie-reviews/pari-movie-review-anushka-sharma-s-bland-film-doesn-t-know-what-it-wants-to-bew/story-INenPNu9IZFrNxvkYg1bgJ.html
https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Horror-Story
https://exemplore.com/paranormal/The-Stages-of-Demonic-Possession
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=supernaturalhorror.htm
https://www.google.com/search?sa=X&q=list+of+bollywood+horror+films&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgfcT4m5Fb4OWPe8JSHxknrTl5jfEVI5eAT35-cWpOZVBqTmJJakpIvpAKF5trXklmSaWQFBePFId-rr6BYXJGugaDFBcXnCe0npGLOzi1JCTfNz8lM61SaD6j0BwiTTPOK8hDmAbiCSWhGhYsFMjF6Zuam5RaVOyfJuTCxeWcn5OTmlySmZ8npMMlKiWonwwX0E_LzMktBhoozIUpLMVhxZabX5aZWswDAN4cwuQBAQAA&npsic=0&ved=0ahUKEwikxJTb7YnbAhVBk5QKHQGHC50Q0CsINSgAMAo
https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2014/01/13-short-creepy-stories-that-will-scare-the-crap-out-of-you/
http://movies.ndtv.com/television/bipasha-basus-television-series-will-show-fear-in-every-possible-form-1236982
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