Horror comedy ‘Bhediya’ to release in November 2022

New Delhi: Horror comedy Bhediya, starring Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon, will release in cinemas on 25 November, 2022. The film has been directed by Amar Kaushik known for Stree and co-produced by Maddock Films and Jio Studios.

To be sure, Bollywood has seen much success for the horror-comedy genre with films like Stree, Golmaal Again and Roohi, earlier this year. Next March, Kartik Aaryan will appear in the remake of Akshay Kumar’s Bhool Bhulaiya. Industry experts say this is an effort to turn the traditional horror genre on its head and churn out films, many of which are based on folk tales and legends and bring in local cultural nuances instead of simply having stories centred around supernatural forces.

"The idea is to build a universe but for that, these individual characters have to be successful first so they can be repeated," Dinesh Vijan, founder of Maddock Films, producers of Stree, Roohi, and Bhediya had said in an earlier interview.

Horror has worked in India since the days of the Ramsay brothers and when it is merged with comedy, it only drives audiences to laugh louder and get more scared, an experience that is ultimately aimed at enticing them to enter cinemas, Vijan added. 

That makes it an important ploy for an industry struggling to fill seats in movie theatres with the emergence of video streaming platforms and the plethora of entertainment options they offer, a trend that has only been accelerated by the covid-19 pandemic.

Trade experts say unlike many other genres, horror is not dependent on stars and it is up to the content to make a mark, send shivers down the spine or in these cases, make people smile. Films made by Ramsay brothers such as Do Ghaz Zameen Ke Niche (1972) and Purana Mandir (1984) had worked without any familiar faces.