Vicky Kaushal has been riding high on the success of Uri: The Surgical Strike that released last year. From starring in action-thrillers to romantic and espionage flicks, the actor has now tried the horror genre with his next, Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship.
It was the concept that attracted the actor. Probably, he also wanted to overcome his fear as he confesses to being terrified of watching horror films. “When I read the script, what fascinated me was its geography. It was almost like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. I liked the thought that there is a vacant hotel, there are so many rooms, and there is just one person, so anything can happen anywhere. There is a lot to play with. This is the same geography where there is a dilapidated big container ship. There are 10 floors, 300 rooms, engine room, pump room, staircases. So there are many textures in this geography, and anything can happen. You can fall, you can get trapped. There are so many possibilities that get created, and we have juiced out everything,” says Vicky.
Not many know Vicky is “too scared to watch horror films,” and he also suffers from hydrophobia. “I go for horror movie maybe once a year. I like watching with a set of friends and preferably with someone who gets more scared than me. But I decided to do a ghost film because I know that as soon as a scene is cut, you are going to have tea with the ghost (jokes and laughs heartily). On a serious note, while I was reading the script, I really got sucked into the story. So once that happens then it’s about following your heart,” he says, “But yes, I would love to overcome my fear because I get very jealous of people who say that they enjoy watching horror films. I tell them that they don’t have any imagination. If I see something in a kitchen, I start imagining that in my kitchen. Nothing has happened with me that I will believe in ghosts but when somebody says that they have experienced it, I am not someone who would say that I don’t believe. I trust that person, and then I sleep with that person only (laughs). I can’t sleep alone after listening to somebody’s ghost experience. I also had a phobia of water, and after doing Bhoot, I could overcome it. But if I am able to do scuba diving in the night then I will overcome fear of water completely.”
Produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Bhoot – The Haunted Ship is directed by Bhanu Pratap Singh and releases in cinemas on 21st February 2020.
