From the fantastical to socio-psychological, comedic to gory, Nivedita Dey traces the diverse trends and the masters who shaped the genre since its appearance in the late-1940s.

- Nivedita Dey

I was about nine-years-old when I saw my first horror film. Alone in my room, on a Sunday afternoon, I was glued to the television screen watching Bees Saal Baad (1989) on the VHS player. Within minutes of the opening credits, the scene turned spooky: When a property broker asks a local tribal girl, Nisha (Dimple Kapadia) for a hammer, she simply elongates her arm sending it through the wide hallway of the haunted haveli to fetch the tool.

This scene and Bees Saal Baad introduced me to the topsy-turvy world of the Indian horror genre: featuring a little silliness, theme of reincarnation, a harrowing sensation, and necessary musical numbers like “Kitne Saawan Baras Gaye” and “Hum Tumhe Itna Pyar Karenge”, which still echo in my mind.

Bollywood horror is a widely popular genre which has always attracted large audience. From the fantastical to socio-psychological, comedic to gory, I trace the diverse trends and the masters who shaped the genre since its appearance in the late-1940s.

The Beginning: 40s through 60s

The first Indian film to be considered as a horror was Mahal (1949), written and directed by Kamal Amrohi. Starring Ashok Kumar, Mahal not only launched Madhubala as the female lead, but also contains one of the evergreen Lata Mangeshkar songs, “Aayega Aanewala”. The film remains iconic for several reasons and overnight bestowed superstardom upon Madhubala and Mangeshkar. Mahal went on to become the biggest hit of the decade and has been listed among the greatest horror films in history by British Film Institute.

Bollywood saw a sharp increase in horror film productions in its wake, most of which were either horror-romance or crime thrillers guised as the supernatural. Biren Nag’s original Bees Saal Baad (1962), Raj Khosla’s trilogy (all starring Sadhna): Woh Kaun Thi (1964), Mera Saaya (1967) and Anita (1969), Kishore Sahu’s Poonam Ki Raat (1965) and several other productions belong to this category. The climaxes to these films often contained a simple, logical explanation to the supernatural, albeit, at times with a few plot-holes, with conspiring human agents instead of paranormal entities being the malevolent driving force. These movies also remain memorable for some of the evergreen romantic songs, such as “Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil” (Bees Saal Baad), “Lag Ja Gale” and “Naina Barse Rimjhim Rimjhim” (Woh Kaun Thi), “Tu Jahaan Jahaan Chalega” (Mera Saaya), “Tujh Bin Jiya Udaas Re” (Poonam Ki Raat)—all of which were sung by Mangeshkar, the ‘nightingale’ of Hindi cinema.

The Ramsay Cult of the 70s - 80s

In the 70s, the trend shifted from romantic and/or crime-based horror to the fantastical: gothic tales portraying grotesque monsters, with jerry-built cinematic treatment. The pioneers of this were the Ramsay Brothers, debuting with Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche (1972). The film significantly changed the course of the genre for the next couple of decades. Anamika Chatterjee, in her interview with Alisha Kirpalani—a member of the Ramsay family and author of Ghosts in our Backyard (HarperCollins, 2021) writes—“In the 1970s, Ramsay Brothers introduced Indian audiences to a fear they hadn’t known before. Subtlety wasn’t exactly the forte… and yet these films managed to send a chill down the spine of the audiences at the time.”

Bees Saal Baad introduced me to the topsy-turvy world of the Indian horror genre: featuring a little silliness, theme of reincarnation, a harrowing sensation, and necessary musical numbers like “Kitne Saawan Baras Gaye” and “Hum Tumhe Itna Pyar Karenge” which still echo in my mind.

This held true only in the sense of introducing unprecedented levels of visually jolting macabre on-screen. Evil dead rising from the graves, vengeful monsters and zombies on the kill, plus haunted mansions turning into human bloodbaths, all became the hallmark of Bollywood horror under the Ramsay banner. Some of their famous (or infamous) films include Guest House (1980) Dahshat (1981) Purana Mandir (1984), 3D Saamri (1985), Tahkhana (1986), Veerana (1988) Purani Haveli (1989), Bandh Darwaza (1990), Ajooba Kudrat Ka (1991), and Mahakal (1994), the last heavily borrowing from the famous Hollywood supernatural slasher film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

The Ramsays were also known for injecting sexuality into their films, leaning towards a genre of ‘masala horror’. The BBC recalls how “the Ramsay brothers churned out movie after B-grade horror movie.” Much of the 80s witnessed this formulaic marriage of sex and supernatural in the horror genre, creating a sleazy and terrifying world on-screen.

Inspired by their work, some other productions that followed suit up to the early 90s included Rajkumar Kolhi’s Jaani Dushman (1979), Mohan Bhakri’s Kabrastan (1988) and Amavas Ki Raat (1990), Dhirendra Bohra’s Kafan (1990), and more. By contemporary standards, most of these films would likely be labelled as ‘B-Grade’ Hindi cinema. Nonetheless, these were much popular among the Indian audience, perhaps because they successfully titillated and catharized the two most primeval human instincts: lust and fear.

During this era, the few exceptions offering somewhat more plausible plots and better cinematic treatment were Ravikanth Nagaich’s Jaadu Tona (1977), inspired by The Exorcist (1973), Aruna Raje’s Gehrayee (1980), Rajkumar Kolhi’s Bees Saal Baad (1989) and certainly Gulzar’s Lekin (1991), loosely based on Rabindranath Tagore’s short story “Kshudhita Pashaan” (1895).

As mid-90s arrived, the Ramsays turned their attention more towards television, creating the hit but equally fantastical Zee Horror Show. They finally ended their big-screen stint with Neighbours (2014), an urban vampire horror.

The ‘RGV Cult’ of the 90s through the early 2000s

As the Ramsay horror machine gradually came to a halt, the pioneering director and screenwriter Ram Gopal Verma—or RGV—made his entry. RGV ventured into the horror foray with Raat (1992), the first Indian horror film shot in two languages simultaneously: Hindi and Telugu. It is, till date, considered one of the best horror movies in Indian cinema. The iconic dream sequence where Mini (Revathi) finds herself completely lost in a vast, empty cinema hall, and the scene in which Deepak (Chinna) finds Mini sitting in the forest possessed by a spirit are hair-raising in the way they exploit the psychology of suspense and terror. The climax explores the parallel existence of light and darkness in the universe, and exhorts people to remain cautious and open-minded towards the same. In this sense, Raat almost sets up the logical ground for ‘a willing suspension of disbelief’ in all future RGV horror stories centred around modern, educated, rational characters from urban Indian cities.

The RGV banner did away with the world of sleaze and grotesque monsters. His protagonists were all urban, upper-middle class people leading modern-day lives who suddenly get sucked into in the paranormal world, primarily through haunted homes, black magic, and spirit possessions. Bhoot (2003), Vaastu Shastra (2004), and Bhoot Returns (2012) deal with modern, nuclear families shifting to their posh, new homes right in the heart of Mumbai, which, unknown to them, are haunted, whereby one or more of the new owners gets possessed by spirits. Darna Mana Hai (2003) and Darna Zaroori Hai (2006) are ground-breaking, multi-starrer horror anthology films, each comprising of six different stories being told to an on-screen urban audience. Phoonk (2008) and Phoonk 2 (2010) are spine-chilling stories revolving around black-magic and spirit attacks on an urban architect’s family.

The RGV banner did away with the world of sleaze and grotesque monsters. His protagonists were all urban, upper-middle class people leading modern-day lives who suddenly get sucked into in the paranormal world, primarily through haunted homes, black magic, and spirit possessions.

While RGV’s horrors still upheld the spirit world, possession and witchcraft, their familiar urban settings, modern cinematic treatment, experimental storytelling elements, cinematography, sound design, and editing made them appealing to the urban cine-lovers. The success of these films is also partly due to a non-negligible portion of urban and semi-urban Indian population, who still believe that such phenomena is plausible in real life.

Bhoot was so terrifying that it opened with a caution for people with weak heart and pregnant women to watch the film at their own risk. The cinematography was groundbreaking, with extensive Dutch angles, high and wide angles, top shots, POV shots, handheld camera movements and more, to create a strong sense of eerie apprehension and unease. In one scene, when the camera sharply drops from eighteenth floor to the ground as a POV shot, it gives the audience a very palpable sense of freefall to one’s death. The ambience of fear and foreboding was evoked not just through paranormal elements, but also through everyday plausible threats: a woman alone at home, a seemingly-predatory and intrusive security guard, a maid who elicits suspicion through her creepy behaviour, the dark elevator shaft, the late-night car parking, and more. Jump scares were manufactured not just visually, but through excellent sound design, including sudden jarring doorbell, intermittent screams etc., on Dolby 5.1 surround sound—which was then a new cinematic experience in India.

Reminiscing about the making of Bhoot, the director remarked on the familiarity of the setting as a core factor of his horror style, “We have a tendency to think of a horror film happening in a graveyard or a haunted house or a hill station but if it happens where no one will expect to see a ghost, then that’s scary… It's a bustling city… It’s relatable. There was this idea of, 'It could happen to me, it could happen in a neighbour’s house, it could happen in the building across the street, it could happen to my own building.”

Early 21st-Century Pioneers

Around this time, many of the other hit horror productions in India were simply remakes of foreign horror films, such as Vikram Bhatt’s Raaz (2002), an unofficial adaptation of What Lies Beneath (2000); Saaya (2003) a remake of Dragonfly (2002); Mahesh Manjrekar’s Rakht (2004), a remake of The Gift (2000); Ravi Shankar Sharma’s Hum Kaun Hai (2004), a remake of the Spanish film, The Others (2001); Sripal Morakhia’s Naina (2005) a mix of the Hong Kong-Singaporean horror film The Eye (2002) and the Japanese film Dark Water (2002); and Vikram Bhatt’s 1920 (2008) loosely based on The Exorcist.

Thus, in the first decade of the 21st century, originality and experimentation in the genre seemed sparse. Besides RGV, two pathbreaking exceptions to this were Soham Seth’s Kaal (2005), and Priyadarshan’s Bhool Bhulaiya (2007), which would prove to be precursors of the changing course of Bollywood horror.

Kaal remains one of the earliest Bollywood films to weld a social/environmental discourse to the genre of supernatural horror. The plot revolves around a mysterious Kaali, the spirit of an environmentally conscious tour guide who kills tourists visiting a National Park to prevent their reckless hunting, poaching, and destruction of wildlife of India. The film is a milestone horror film for issuing a strong social message while delivering perfect jump scares and a dollop of gore and violence.

Bhool Bhulaiya is a Bollywood remake of a Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993). The film entirely shifts away from fantastical supernatural and leans into the potentials of previously unexplored psychological comedy-horror. With major characters played by comedy stalwarts Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Asrani, Rajpal Yadav, Manoj Joshi and Rashika Joshi, Bhool Bhulaiya is more often a furore of laughter blended into a tense build-up of mystery. Through eerie faux encounters with an alleged ghost in an old royal palace, the story unfolds around local superstitions and belief in the occult, and goes onto to show how the human subconscious—especially when in states of certain psychological disorders—can weave illusions of the supernatural as real. The film is both a criticism of blind faith and baseless fear in/of the paranormal and its reinterpretation, highlighting the complexities of the human mind.

The Bhatt Clan through the early 21st century

During the first two decades of the 21st century, Mukesh Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt produced the Raaz series. All the instalments—except the second which was a Mohit Suri direction—were directed by Vikram Bhatt.

Vikram Bhatt went on to write the popular 1920 quasi-series, that includes 1920: The Evil Returns (2012), 1920 London (2016) and 1921 (2018). The latest addition, 1920: Horrors of the Heart (2023) is written by Mahesh Bhatt and directed by Krishna Bhatt. Vikram Bhatt has also directed several horror films outside the Bhatt creative franchisee, including Fear (2007), Shaapit (2010), and Haunted 3D (2011).

The storylines of both the Raaz and the 1920 series are somewhat similar, with some repetitive themes: haunted mansions, a beloved possessed by a vengeful spirit, the lover’s valiant and selfless efforts to save them, romantic angst, and rituals of exorcism.

Some Other Significant Experiments

The past two decades saw several new cinematic experiments in the supernatural horror genre. 13B (2009) was the Hindi version of Vikram Kumar’s Tamil horror film, Yavarum Nalam, simultaneously shot in both languages. The cinematic treatment of 13B close resembled that of Japanese horror genre, dealing primarily with psychological horror. A familiar domestic setting was portrayed as the epicentre of psychological tension, suspense, and supernatural terror. The deliberate constricted settings of a small modern flat, an elevator that stops working only for Manohar (R. Madhavan), and a tiny television screen that foretells ominous misfortunes about to befall Manohar’s family, together evoke claustrophobia and a sense of inescapability. A battle of human survival against the malevolent paranormal takes place among people closely associated through familial bonds and friendship, creating a spine-chilling story of terrifying secrets, betrayal and paranoia.

The storylines of both the Raaz and the 1920 series are somewhat similar, with some repetitive themes: haunted mansions, a beloved possessed by a vengeful spirit, the lover’s valiant and selfless efforts to save them, romantic angst, and rituals of exorcism.

The first stereoscopic 3D Bollywood horror, Vikram Bhatt’s Haunted – 3D (2011) was a box-office success for its novel special effects, but received severe criticism from the reviewers for its cliched treatment of the genre. Pawan Kripalani’s Ragini MMS (2011)—inspired by Paranormal Activity (2007)—became Bollywood’s first horror film to be entirely shot in found-footage style, using an elaborate six camera set-up. It was a huge box-office success while also impressing the critics as a film that Rediff called “terrifyingly real, and immensely watchable for the cold fright it inspires.” Similarly, Allyson Patel and Yash Dave’s ? –A Question Mark (2012) again shot in the found-footage style, went on to receive both critical acclaim and several international awards.

Horror, Comedy, Social Discourse, and the Maddock Supernatural Universe

Towards the end of the 2010s, filmmakers tapped into a largely fresh potential for Bollywood horror genre, hinted at almost two decades back by Bhool Bhulaiya and Kaal. Horror and comedy begin to come together more frequently as a successful combo-pack of entertainment simultaneously bearing potent social discourse, beginning with Stree (2018).

Stree was the very first instalment in the Maddock Supernatural Universe (MSU), a comedy horror loaded with socio-cultural messages. The plot is based on the popular Kannada urban legend Naale Baa (Come Tomorrow) and comically subverts the real-world power dynamics between patriarchy and oppression of women. Stree is the unquenched ghost of a courtesan from Chanderi, who was first objectified by men’s lust, and later tortured to death—along with her lover—by the village lord. Now as a ghost, she exacts her revenge from every man who replies to her seductive address. The dialogues—often riotously funny—are layered with subtle social commentaries on patriarchy, social hegemony, feminine power, and more.

Hardik Mehta’s Roohi (2021) by Maddock Films is again a comedy horror loaded with feminist messages, and covers diverse subjects from forced marriages of women, to female desire, freedom and emancipation. The central theme is based on Mudiya pairi, another urban legend about the female ghost with feet pointing backwards. Despite being criticised for a seemingly incoherent screenplay, Roohi successfully subverts the popular patriarchal tropes, as the female protagonist breaks free from such societal expectations.

MSU instalment Bhediya (2022) is a comedy horror dealing with the burning issue of environmental hazard posed by capitalist greed and deforestation. Munjya (2024) revolves around the ghost of a young boy in love with a girl seven years older to him, desperate to marry her reincarnation.

Stree 2 (2024) again carries the mantle borne by its predecessor. Only this time, the screenplay is even more loaded with comedic lines, bordering on vulgarity, with commentary on the stronghold of patriarchy and the need for both men and women to come together to defeat this toxic institution.

Outside of Maddock, two films that significantly add to the trend of horror films being social torchbearers are Vishal Furia’s Chhorii (2021) and Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul (2022). Chhorii—a remake of the Marathi film, Lapachhapi (2017)—revolves around the issue of female foeticide/infanticide and rabid violence against women in a patriarchal society, and is set in an unnamed village in (what is evidently) Haryana, which saw an alarming decline in sex ratio at birth last year. The screenplay unfolds as a spine-chilling ordeal of an urban expectant mother finding herself in a haunted house amidst a sugarcane field that is reeking with deadly secrets.

Bulbbul, a period horror drama set in the Bengal presidency in the 1880s, is another chilling discourse of social evils such as child marriage, taboo and repression of female desire, systemic gender oppression, male lust and violence, the objectification and dehumanization of women, and much more. With the story juxtaposing the binary female archetypes of ‘Devi’ (goddess) and ‘Chuddail’ (the witch), Bulbbul perfectly marries the realism of feudal patriarchy with supernatural folklore and mythology, creating a hair-raising tale of suspense, terror, injustice and retribution.

With the story juxtaposing the binary female archetypes of ‘Devi’ (goddess) and ‘Chuddail’ (the witch), Bulbbul perfectly marries the realism of feudal patriarchy with supernatural folklore and mythology, creating a hair-raising tale of suspense, terror, injustice and retribution.

Maddock Films have increasingly pivoted the audience towards Indian folk horror set in obscure villages, a theme that didn’t have many takers previously. Rahi Anil Barve’s Tumbbad (2018) is a critically-acclaimed Hindi horror set in the Maharashtrian village by the same name. Loosely based on folktale of Hastar, Tumbbad is a commentary on uncontrolled human greed and lust for wealth. The film received immense praise as one of the most original works in the genre.

Looking forward

Two new MSU films are slated to release in 2025, including Aditya Sarpotdar’s highly-anticipated Thama (Oct, 2025), a vampire horror with a big cast (Ayushmann Khurana, Rashmika Mandanna, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Paresh Rawal). So far, most Bollywood vampire movies including the Ramsay Brothers’ Purana Mandir (1984), Bandh Darwaza (1990), and Veerana (1988) not only portrayed these mythical creatures as grotesque blood-thirsty monsters, but also blended gothic horror with sleaze, rendering some to call the productions “ultratrashy”. Thama promises to be Bollywood’s first vampire film that turns the trope into a classy tale of romance horror. MSU will also release Shakti Shalini this year, which again is a comedy horror with strong motifs of feminine power.

Besides latter MSU instalments such as Stree 3, Bhediya 2, Chamunda and Maha Munjya, Maddock Films have also announced their ambitious multi-starrers, Pehla Mahayudh (First Mega War) and Dusra Mahayudh (Second Mega War), which will bring together all the MSU characters in a final culmination of the various storylines of the said universe.

Other significant upcoming productions are a sequel to Tumbbad, Furia’s Maa (starring Kajol), Chhorii 2, The Virgin Tree, Kapkapii and Priyadarshan’s Bhoot Bangla (featuring Akshay Kumar), and more. This slew of films proves that the horror genre of Bollywood—in its many varieties—is here to stay, and continues to evolve into new avenues of unexplored potential.

Bhool Bhulaiya 3 hints at this potential: In the film’s climax, the audience is left gasping when it is revealed that Manjulika—the ‘brand ambassador ghost’ of the series—is not a female dancer, but a prince struggling with his gender assigned at birth and wishing to embrace his femininity through cross-dressing and classical dance. We are given glimpses of his inner turmoil, and his terrible sense of betrayal when he is outed and murdered by the palace. Albeit, this revelation comes too late in the story and is quickly wrapped up, rendering this unique plot point a wasted potential. Perhaps this is a signal of more queer and trans discourses marrying into Indian horror themes. With unending imagination, this is a genre that promises to keep evolving.

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Nivedita Dey is a poet from Kolkata, India. Her poetic philosophy is one of hope and transcendental humanism, and her debut poetry collection was Larkspur Lane: Branched Labyrinths of the Mind (Notion Press, 2022). Dey holds post-graduate degrees in English and Psychology. She is part of the editorial team of HNDL Magazine. She can be found at niveditadey.com, Twitter: @Nivedita_Writes, and Instagram: @niveditadeypoetry.

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