High on spirits

I'm a serious person, reminds Ram Gopal Verma when photographer Rane Ashish asks him to smile for the camera. In his office at Oshiwara, amid gruesome standees of his next horror release Phoonk 2, the grim filmmaker talks about his penchant for the supernatural:


WHO: Ram Gopal Verma
WHAT: Speaks on horror and childhood pranks
WHERE: His office at Oshiwara

Spook-festu00a0
If you look at my 20-year career graph, I've done only around six horror films, out of which I've directed only three. Yet people associate me with horror and I find that curious. As a filmmaker I've dabbled in all genres, be it suspense, drama, spoof or horror. But there are only so many genres and and horror is one of my favourite.

Scary skills
As a child, saying 'boo' was my favourite game. I used to be a horror film buff and one of my much-loved hobbies was to tell scary stories. I think skill in horror story-telling stems from there. In the early days, I used to read Stephen King novels and was a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock's compilation of short stories.
But I never really believed in ghosts. One day, in my teens, my friends challenged me to walk to the centre of a graveyard at midnight. I accepted the challenge though I was very scared. I walked to the centre where there was a huge tree. I stopped there and suddenly a body rose up! I was frozen to the spot. Then I realised it was Khaja, a cycle shop owner who slept under the tree because it was cooler there!

Child's play
Horror works best when the audience feels that this could happen to anybody. The director's skill is in manipulating and distracting the viewers and then suddenly pouncing on them. But there's a subtle difference between horror and scary films. Films with psychological play, where fear plays an important role as you use the audience's imagination, are scary. Whereas, films that visually horrify you or images that repulse you are horror. Evil Dead and Exorcist are few of my favourites.

Money talk
Many think my business strategy is to stick to small budget films, but that's not true. The budget of a film should suit the need of the film. Kaun's script needed only one house to shoot in, so where's the need for spending? Whereas Raktacharitra (my next) does need bigger budgets. Also, there's a misconception that the budgets shoot up with the cast, but that's not true either. The attitude of the director and the requirement of the film dictate the finances.