Emraan Hashmi is delving back into the dark side again. It’s been a while. The actor practically built his early career skulking through misty sets trying to look terrified or being possessed. But now, he has signed up for a film titled Rooh, which the studio is labelling a supernatural thriller.
For advertisement on our platform, do call at +91 6377460764 or email us at [email protected].
He certainly has an extensive and rather unique history with this genre.
Think back to 2009 and the release of Raaz: The Mystery Continues. Three years down the line he was back for its sequel Raaz 3, then Ek Thi Daayan, a film from 2013 which had a quite interesting local folklore bent, Raaz Reboot in 2016, and most recently Dybbuk, last year. Hashmi has become synonymous with this type of commercial, spooky cinema, with the minute a ghost story or occult activity is on the table, you hear his name being thrown around in casting meetings. The project is being backing by Vicked Films Productions, with producers Vikram Khakhar and Sunny Khanna ponying up the cash.
Days ago, the filmmakers rolled out a motion teaser, seemingly in an effort to get the industry and press buzz around the movie. The video shows a haunted looking forest with trees lit up by embers, with the camera panning out to reveal a girl suspended by some invisible means in the middle of the screen – an image of the clearly possessed individual. As the camera continues to pull back, the shot widens to show Emraan Hashmi looking up, his eyes turning completely black – the typical visual representation of someone’s soul taken over – as the film’s tagline hits: ‘When the legend revisits the darkness, a nightmare is born.’
The Writing Talent to Back the Fear
And that’s enough with the superficial details, let’s look at the real people behind making it happen. Sitting in the director’s chair is Mayank Sharma. Some readers may recognise his name, seeing as he is the creator and director of two seasons of the critically acclaimed psychological thriller series Breathe for Amazon Prime Video.
However, he isn’t the sole person writing this film.
He has partnered up with Vishal Kapoor to put pen to paper for this. It’s actually this specific part of the project that might genuinely interest those who follow industry dynamics.
Vishal Kapoor has an understanding of raw, local terror. His last venture was the 2017 Marathi horror film Lapachhapi. While that film was undeniably creepy, it never felt cheap – no sudden monsters popping out from the corner or overly dramatic jumps.
The film, which was set in a sprawling sugarcane maze, told the story of a pregnant woman desperately trying to evade not only the supernatural – a seemingly omnipresent, ghostly figure – but also deeply entrenched societal injustices.
Kapoor had started developing this concept way back in 2013. After a tour across various international film festivals, Lapachhapi was finally released in cinemas and demonstrated that it was possible to create highly praised films out of regional narratives.
Subsequently, he penned the screenplay for its Hindi remake, titled Chhorii, released in 2021. Nushrratt Bharuccha played the lead character, carrying on with the dusty, earthy terror from its Marathi counterpart. In many ways, inviting Vishal Kapoor to a mainstream Emraan Hashmi-led film means inviting an approach of dread and fear that’s far from the usual sleekly produced films Hashmi often does.
Hashmi’s films are typically glossier; Kapoor operates in the dust and shadows.
It would be a bizarre yet potentially rewarding pairing to see Kapoor’s grim scripts meshed with Sharma’s clean, high-budget production value. Sharma recently mentioned in an interview that the filmmakers are aspiring to offer something beyond simple frights, emphasizing their desire for an emotionally compelling story embedded within a genuinely unnerving atmosphere.
A Mix of Murder and Melody
The producers of Rooh have themselves marketed the film as a “musical horror spectacle”. Now this phrasing feels almost oxymoronic for an Indian horror film: traditionally, it is a given that quiet silence is crucial to establishing suspense, and loud songs typically puncture the carefully built tension of such genres. But considering that the film’s lead actor is Emraan Hashmi, it is understandable; almost every single film of Hashmi’s has had a popular soundtrack, with the sale of audio rights alone often recouping nearly half the budget before its release.
In the past, Hashmi’s more than average movies have barely scraped by at the box office thanks to massive hits from their soundtracks, and, clearly, the producers understand this strategy.
The announcement was made directly in a tone that suggested the musical element would be quite pronounced, and even while a music composer hasn’t yet been named, a PR release explicitly stated that music will have a “significant” part in driving the narrative, and not merely added as background filler to increase album sales. The director added that the world of Rooh requires a strong sound design and that a “contemporary cinematic experience” necessitates big, sprawling musical pieces. As for Hashmi himself, he stated that the film drew him in because it weaves together emotion, fear, and music.
A Long Road Ahead to Release
Do not hold your breath for this particular film; at this point, the planned release date is 2027, a considerably longer timeline for any Indian horror movie, many of which are completed and released within two or three months of wrapping production (just head over to the Madh Island bungalows for reference, that’s how quick most Mumbai productions can get going). However, a release slate of this magnitude indicates that the producers are probably going to sink a significant amount of money into post-production and special effects. Moreover, this film is also aiming for a pan-Indian release, meaning that Tamil and Telugu versions will be produced, which, incidentally, has become the industry norm for films with sizable budgets (everybody’s hungry for those sweet, sweet South Indian box office millions, even though the genre-film audiences there often have unique tastes compared to those in Mumbai’s multiplexes).
Currently, Hashmi is embroiled in another, quite dissimilar, project; he has a sequel in August this year to his popular 2007 action flick Awarapan – with Shabana Azmi playing a formidable villain – after which we assume the focus will swiftly shift towards his spectral, musical endeavour.
The cast, both leading and supporting, for Rooh has not yet been revealed. We do not yet know who will be playing the female lead and frankly, most of the film’s crew has yet to be announced, outside of the names of the writer and producer team we’ve already established. Production on Rooh should, however, kick off later this year.
