The actor tells Chahak Mittal that working for Bhoot: The Haunted Ship not only compelled him to face his worst fears but also taught him how a horror film requires an artiste to give a lot of calculated expressions
What would it be like to react to something that is not even present in front of you? Confused? Well, now you can imagine what actor Vicky Kaushal’s situation might have been when he was acting for Bhoot: The Haunted Ship. Be it romance, comedy, thriller or biopic, other drama genres hold a lot of facts from real life for actors to abide by. However, the expression of horror follows no grammar. Acting for a horror film is like acting for something that’s not even real. And for Vicky, this was the trickiest part.
He tells us, “I was purely following Bhanu’s (Pratap Singh, director) orders and vision. Everyday I would come on set and just ask him a number of questions. ‘What are we exactly doing?’ ‘What does he want and how?’ ‘How are we going to create that fear?’” The actor had very little to work with. There were no props on the set, neither was there any sound track which is overlaid later.
He says, “There were times when I would find myself looking at the monitor, which I don’t usually do. I would ask Bhanu what the background music would be like and what effects are going to be added in the post-production. It would require a lot of focus from all the departments together and then with myself to create that kind of atmosphere for the audience in the theatre. Hence, the grammar was very new to me. But there was a lot of conviction and clarity in Bhanu’s narration, which made me think and act the way he wanted me to. I think! (Laughs)”
Vicky explains how he worked on the process. He says, “When you’re doing a scene for a drama or comedy film, in your heart, you know that you’ve hit the right emotion. But with fear, it is always the planned emotion. It doesn’t come to you naturally, especially if there is nothing around you. I am walking in a haunted ship and there’s something I hear from the back. But that is only something that I have to imagine. It hasn’t happened in reality. It is going to be added later. Yet I have to react, imagine the intensity of it and then come to an intensity of fear that can be visible from my facial expressions and body language. All of that is a very calculated process. You know that you are going to react in this way. You don’t leave it to the moment. So this planning of reactions and still making it seem natural is very tricky!”
He accepted the film because Dharma Productions was in charge. “I was called by the production house when Raazi was going to be released. They wanted to have a discussion with me about doing another film with them, which was, surprisingly, a horror one. I was intrigued. I wondered ‘kuch toh baat hogi’. My mind was blown after I the script. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
The film, also starring Bhumi Pednekar, revolves around the real-life haunted ship which was washed ashore on Mumbai’s coast. The strange part of it was that when it hit the sand barrier, there was nobody on it, including the crew members. The mystery was undetected and alarmed the people when it went aground off the coast one day. For Vicky, the script was written in a way that it stuck to the genre authentically. There wasn’t any Bollywoodisation of the theme. “It was fresh and had no unnecessary subplots or dance. I was very happy doing that. Aesthetically, it was rich. The geography, which plays a very important part in a horror film, was able to perfectly define the seriousness of the situation that was being created. There have been abandoned homes or a cemetery to showcase a horror element. But this one was a ship, which I thought was quite fresh and gave a lot of scope to explore the genre. In that container ship, there are about a hundreds rooms — engine room, pump room, staircases, lifts, which are all worn out because it’s a dilapidated, old ship. And there’s nobody inside. So I thought it became a great setup, which was properly exploited too.”
With films like Masaan, Love Per Square Foot, Raazi, Uri, and now Bhoot... there has been a whole range of genres that Vicky has explored — arthouse, romantic comedy, action, drama and horror. So how has such a variety of roles transformed him? He says, “Every film does that in some way or the other. Masaan just gave me a new perspective about life. Spending so much time in those ghats, where dead bodies are burnt, one realises the finality of life. Whatever you do or achieve, this is the real truth, where we all are going to end up one day. When I was shooting for Uri, it gave me such a new understanding about the lives of military personnel and their families. I realised what they go through. Aap kitna hi kitaabo mei padhle, but to actually live their stories, changes you.”
Vicky hasn’t been a fan of horror films himself and like most, also flinches at the thought of it. So how was it working for one? “When you do a horror film, being that person from the audience who is very scared to watch such films, you kind of overcome that fear. You face it while being a part of it directly. I am very afraid of water. And in this film, there were a lot of underwater sequences. I had to literally face my fear in a very genuine way. It hit me very personally. But yes, eventually, it also becomes a very liberating process. And that experience changes you, slightly.”
Horror as a genre hasn’t been explored in India much. Like The Conjuring, Annabelle, Paranormal Activities, there are no Hindi equivalent. Why? For Vicky, it’s because a horror film does not comply with the entertainment needs of the majority. He says, “There are people with nine to five jobs. They are not willing to watch a serious rather tension vaali film after a tiring day. Not everyone is able to enjoy a horror film. That’s why producers do not want to invest in such a film. And even when such films are made, they are made on such a low budget because of the fear of not earning enough. Eventually, it looks tacky. A horror film is an expensive one, which requires a lot of post-production work. We have tried to notch up the aesthetic sense of the film and given it elements to connect on an internal level so that the horror enthusiasts and non-horror enthusiasts can come and watch it together.”
Well, the film’s trailer looks promising and certainly makes one feel that this could be India’s The Conjuring. It is certainly no cliched ‘mehelon vaali bhootiya kahaani’ (haunted house story) anymore.” We are trying to give the audience a feel that it’s fresh. Give us a chance, the ship will sail! (Laughs).”