“How many Bollywood horror films actually jolt?” – Sangeeth Sivan

Filmmaker Sangeeth Sivan is pleased that finally he has a horror film to his name. Though he has Sandhya (Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon and Ashutosh Rana) ready for close to a decade now, this horror flick has been lying in cans ever since then and never saw the light of the day. While Sangeeth did get recognition from successful films like Kya Kool Hain Hum and Apna Sapna Money Money, he decided to come out of his comfort zone and chose horror as the genre for his first production Click. "The idea was to jolt people at least twice in those two hours of Click", says Sangeeth in his trademark animated tone a day after the release of the film, "I am told that people are reacting at just the right junctures and as long as that is happening, I am happy." The film hasn’t opened on a positive note at the box office though the reviews have been mostly positive with word of mouth (from whatever number of people who are watching the flick) encouraging. "For a film belonging to horror genre and that too with relatively newer faces, it is always difficult to get house full boards on the day of the release. I am happy though people are actually talking about the film now. I never intended to make a master piece but instead tell a commercial horror tale that has a definite storyline to boast", says Sangeeth in defence of the film. The double twist towards the concluding reels of Click is being much talked about and this is what is expected to entice audience to step inside the theatres. It is one of the newest ways that a story has been ended in a mainstream Bollywood horror film. Leave aside the shock value, it’s the originality in the way Click takes a somersault towards the end that makes one forget the popcorn and SMS-ing and keeps one glued on screen. Really, one couldn’t see that coming. "That was the entire idea; to tell something which couldn’t be predicted by the audience. With all due respect to some of my counterparts who have ‘horror hits’ to their names, tell me how many of these films actually managed to jolt you? Personally, I wasn’t taken aback in some of these films which have released over the last couple of years", adds Sangeeth in a matter of fact tone. In Click, just when one thought that you had cracked it all and got ready for the rolling of end credits come the double twist did make one all wide eyed. Really, these are the moments that make Click stand out from the likes of Phoonk, 1920 and Bhoot which were all good (and successful) in their own way but followed a set pattern. In fact the only similarity (to a little extent) in the end is with the one in Ram Gopal Varma’s Darling but the fact here again is that not many have seen the Fardeen Khan – Esha Deol starrer. Hoping that word of mouth will succeed in taking Click to some distance, Sangeeth says, "The film should find patronage amongst the college students and youth in general. The feedback that I have received for the film is positive and that is encouraging enough."