Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma says he cast Urmila Matondkar in his 2003 movie Bhoot because he was convinced she had the intensity needed to lead his horror film after seeing her performance in one of the songs from Rangeela.
Bhoot was a box-office hit and is considered one of the best horror movies in Hindi. Matondkar won several awards for her performance as a possessed wife.
It revolved around a married couple, played by Ajay Devgn and Matondkar, who move into a flat haunted by a spirit, and a series of inexplicable experiences drives the wife to near madness.
“I decided to cast Urmila in the role because of one expression she did in another completely different film of mine. The expression in the ‘Hai Rama’ song from Rangeela struck so strongly in my head, like when she is wearing a red dress and looking intensely at Jackie Shroff. That close-up is what actually convinced me she could pull off this role in (Bhoot),” Varma said at the Red Lorry Film Festival on Saturday evening, where the movie was screened.
When asked if he would collaborate with Matondkar again, the filmmaker instantly replied in the negative.
“Right now, I don’t have anything. I must have done every kind of genre with her, from Satya to Rangeela to Bhoot and Ek Hasina Thi,” he said.
Varma said casting is very important in horror films as the weight of the genre rests on the actor’s shoulders.
“I feel casting is the most important thing because what the characters are feeling on screen, the audience will feel the same, especially even more so in a horror film. A guy with an action image is getting scared, so you will also be more scared than that. So, the expressions of actors play around 80 per cent of the importance; sound, music, and all other things play about 20 per cent because the purpose of the sound and music is also to enhance the actor’s expression,” he said.
The director said he has been a fan of The Exorcist, a horror franchise that began with the acclaimed 1973 film.
“I saw it when I was a teenager and I couldn’t sleep; I was not myself for a month. I used to be scared looking at anyone and everyone, including my family members,” he said, adding that he hasn’t seen Bhoot since it was released over two decades ago.
Varma is renowned for introducing realistic psychological horror films like Raat (1992), Bhoot and its sequel Bhoot Returns, Darna Mana Hai, Phoonk, Kaun, and 12 ‘O’ Clock.
“You first have to love the act of scaring people,” Varma said, recalling how he used a frightening mask to prank people at night during his college days.
Varma revealed that his initial idea for Bhoot was to follow the traditional horror blueprint of setting the movie in a spooky haveli; later, he ditched it for an apartment in Mumbai.
“When I was making Bhoot, my first idea was to set it in some kind of haveli, which was the most cliched thing at that time. One of my assistants said, ‘Sir, haveli is such a done-to-death location, the most obvious for a horror film. Why don’t we do it in Goa or somewhere?’ Then I said, ‘Let’s set it in Lokhandwala’ (a popular area in suburban Mumbai). I think horror works best when the people sitting in the theatre feel it can happen to them,” he said.
Citing the example of successful franchise films like Lights Out and The Conjuring, Varma said the approach to horror films is minimalism and that a complex plot can weaken the scares.
“There are various ways to make a horror film. I feel a horror film should never have too much of a story. In fact, when you try to tell a story, it might lessen the impact and you will lose your relatability. The biggest example I can give you is The Exorcist; there’s zero story,” the director said.
Varma is thrilled about reuniting with actor Manoj Bajpayee on their upcoming horror-comedy film Police Station Mein Bhoot. The two have worked together on films like Satya, Kaun, and Shool.
He revealed that the film will release sometime in May.
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