Horror: Gripping the nation?

The surprise windfall of Munjya, the blockbuster run of Stree 2 and the Deepavali dhamaka of Bhool Bhulaiya 3 has made horror the flavour of the season.

On Chhath Puja, Sidharth Malhotra dropped the first look of Vvan, a mythological folk thriller, produced by Viral Fever and Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures. Reportedly, Ekta is also working on a film with Tumbbad director Rahi Anil Barve and developing Raagini MMS 3 with scriptwriter Rajat Arora.

Meanwhile, producer Dinesh Vijan has added Thama, a fifth film to Maddock Supernatural Universe after Stree and Stree 2, Bhediya and Munjya. It features Ayushmannn Khurrana as a man-turned vampire, and is directed by Munjya director Aditya Sorpotdar. Along with Bhediya 2, which returns with Varun Dhawan and Stree director Amar Kaushik next year, Thama has booked the Deepavali slot. Meanwhile, Stree 3 is already written. According to a reports, Kriti Sanon could be collaborating with Aanand L Rai next year on a horror comedy tentatively titled Nayi Naveli.

Does this mean horror, a genre popularised by the Ramsay Brothers in the ’90s, and Ram Gopal Varma and Vikram Bhatt in 2000, is back in an upgraded multiplex-pleasing version? Amit Sharma, managing director of Miraj Entertainment Limited, points out that despite top producers not making horror films for a while, the Conjuring series was a big hit in India. "Bhool Bhulaiyaa with Akshay Kumar brought the genre back in 2007. It has since travelled, with a horror universe coming up in Hindi cinema, but down south too with the Kanchana series,” he shares.

The exhibitor admits that earlier, the genre was a little sleazy with the focus on the flesh element, but of late, it has reinvented itself by incorporating comedy. “Horror never went out of the theatres, but now, it can be a superhit formula if treated right. It’s an emotion deep within us, so the subject is enjoyable to all, irrespective of age and humour making it workable even for kids,” he reasons.

Padmini Kolhapure, who starred in Aruna Raje-Vikas Desai’s 1980 exorcism drama Gehrayee, based on a true story and scripted by Vijay Tendulkar, is thrilled her niece Shraddha Kapoor’s Stree 2 is so far the year’s biggest blockbusters and also Hindi cinema’s top grossers. “My son, Priyaank, was mesmerised by horror films since he was a child, but I haven’t seen Gehrayee yet,” confesses Padmini. She added that while ‘Stree 2’ was fun and she laughed a lot, she shut her eyes during the scary scenes or turned away from the screen, watching the play of emotions on Priyaank’s face and spooking him when he suddenly turned to see her staring fixedly at him. “We’re a bunch of cowards, Shraddha, me and Shivangi (Shraddha’s mother and Padmini’s sister). Shivangi called after seeing Bhool Bhulaiya 3 to warn me to not even think of watching it as it would terrify me,” she chuckles.

However, others are binging on horror. Trade analyst Atul Mohan points out that while Bhool Bhulaiya 2, the first Hindi release after Covid-19 pandemic with cinema halls running at 50 per cent occupancy, did a lifetime’s business of Rs 180 crore on a Rs 50 crore budget, part instalment, upped the cost to Rs 120 crore and has already grossed Rs 230 crore. “Had it not clashed with Singham 3 on Deepavali, it would have opened in the Rs 40-50 crore range with a first weekend gross of Rs 110-120 crore. Both films lost 30-35 per cent coming together,” he rues.

Stree earned Rs 130 crore on an investment of under Rs 20 crore. Its sequel, with the advantage of a hit brand, has earned Rs 600 crore-plus on a budget of Rs 120 crore. “That’s the beauty of the box-office, you never know what works! Munjya, with a titular character created using CGI and a Rs 12-14 crore budget, made Rs 110-115 crore,” Atul exults.

He points out horror is big in regional cinema too this year. Mammooty’s Malayalam period folk horror, Brahmayugam, along with Stree 2, are the only two Indian films on Letterboxd’s ‘The Official Top 50 Horror Films of 2024’. Kannada has given up Kabandha, Aathma, Pretha, Aatma Thallana and the sequels of Namo Bhootathma and Avatra Purusha. There are half-a-dozen Tamil releases, including Aranmanai 4, and at least 10 in Telugu, including Kajal Karthika.

“Gujarat’s biggest blockbuster is Jhamkudi, set in a village cursed by an evil witch during Navratri while Punjab’s top grosser is Gippy Grewal’s Jatti Nu Chudail. The Marathi ‘Alyad Palyad’ has enjoyed a good run as has the Bengali ‘Bhootpori’. So, horror is not just the flavour of the season but the nation,” Atul concludes.