The Bollywood horror film industry has a rich history dating back to the 1950s. However, due to various aspects, the mainstream viewed the horror with disdain.
During the seventies, eighties and nineties, the A-Listers never signed a horror movie. That created a whole new set of actors who would make Bollywood horror movies, and they had a cult following.
Since the actors were new, the budgets were lower. Because horror is a salable genre, most of these horror movies turned into revenue for the producers and financiers.
With the arrival of new talent, producers looking for quick money began to produce regressive and exploitative cinema, Bollywood horror became infamous. In the 1990s, directors like Ram Gopal Varma and Vikram Bhatt revolutionized the horror genre with their films.
Here are the 5 movies that changed the audience’s perspective of an Indian horror movie.
Street 1
Dinesh Vijan directs this script by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK. Before this, no one managed to create a real horror movie with comedy elements. Stree was an instant hit and revived the horror segment in Bollywood. The film stars Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, and Flora Saini.
#2 root
This film by Dino Morea and Bipasha Basu changed the template for horror movies. Previously, horror movies were about an evil spirit haunting the family of someone who had wronged them.
In Raaz, the reason behind the evil spirit’s existence was a crime committed or an injustice committed by those being persecuted. The bold new generation seized on this idea, paving the way for India’s most popular franchise.
#3 Go Goa Gone
Go Goa Gone answered a relevant question: why do zombies only attack western countries? With Go Goa Gone, India got its first successful, entertaining, franchise-worthy zombie movie.
Go, Goa, Gone was the first successful horror movie to add comedic elements and get away with it. The intelligentsia called it dark humor and the mainstream saw the incidents depicted in the film as happening to them every day, apart from the zombie apocalypse of course. Today, it makes the list of most wanted Indian horror movie sequels.
#4 Bet
For three decades, Indian horror makers used the wash, rinse and repeat formula. They were unable to delve into the rich Indian culture for characters and narrative arcs. There was this risk of hurt feelings. Somehow Anushka Sharma had the means to delve into Islamic history and create Pari, a genuinely terrifying film.
This is only the second Bollywood horror movie that was a hair-raising experience to see in the cinema, second only to Stree.
#5 Summer
Funny but true, this movie is still being talked about four decades after its release. That puts him on a par with Sholay, well, almost. The Ramsays made several horror movies like Purana Mandir, Purani Haveli, Shaitaani Ilaaka and many more. But Veerana is the one every Indian horror fan knows.
In retrospect, there is absolutely no reason why Veerana has become so famous, other than the fact that there is a conspiracy theory that the main heroine, Jasmine, has disappeared somewhere. Perhaps that is the reason why he is loved by horror clubs even today.
