Vikram Bhatt to roll with fifth horror franchise

Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt who has been the King of horror movies is all set to roll out his fifth franchise with the film titled as ‘1921’. His earlier films were Raaz, 1920, Haunted and Hate Story under his own banner in collaboration with Reliance Entertainment. The movie ‘1921’ will take off in November and will cast Zareen Khan in the lead role.

Vikram said to a leading daily, “The idea behind 1920 was to bring horror into a period drama redolent with the romance of the times. But with Part 2 and Part 3, the direction changed and the series became more about horror. 1921, while more terrifying, will also be more emotional”.

Reliance came forward to distribute ‘1920’ in 2008, after many producers had turned down ‘1920’ because Vikram was reeling from a string of flops.

Vikram points out that though he has made 32 films in 25 years as a director, he does not own a single negative which he can leave as his legacy to his daughter, Krishna. “For too long I have created franchises for other producers and directors. Even when I was with ASA Productions, I was only the creative director and made films for the company. ‘1921’ will be my film in every way,” he states.

Vikram says that around 4 years ago, when he was working on ‘Raaz 3’, mentor producer Mahesh Bhatt had presented him with a picture of a peacock flying in a parched desert, pointing out that he was a lone ranger like this bird as he did everything himself, from writing his films to editing and shooting them. Vikram has now decided to name his banner, Loneranger Productions. It will take off with ‘1921’, which revolves around students of music and is set in a university town. “We’ve already signed Zareen Khan who brought in a certain amount of dignity to ‘Hate Story 3’. We could shoot the film in Vienna or Yorkshire, or even somewhere in Italy or Scotland. It will go on the floors in November.”

ALSO READ: Vikram Bhatt confesses to his extra marital afffair with Sushmita Sen

Prajakta Ajgaonkar

Passionate about writing, and a Bollywood lover, she is all that is sweet and endearing! She desires to put her best foot forward in everything that she does and loves to help anyone who’s in need.