No one in India is doing justice to the horror genre, says director Vishal Furia

Filmmaker Vishal Furia, who is all set to remake his critically acclaimed Marathi horror film Lapachhapi (2017) in Hindi with Nushrat Bharucha, feels that no one in India is doing justice to the horror genre.

In a statement to the IANS news agency, Furia expressed displeasure at how, despite some honest efforts, the genre has been largely unexplored in Indian cinema and said there should be a movement to fill the void.

"Horror is such a strong genre because the impact remains with the audience for life," Furia said. "And yet, when I left the broadcasting industry to join the film industry, I found a gaping hole in this category. I realized no one is doing justice to it and felt I could contribute. That is why I started writing Lapachhapi."

Furia, who made his directorial debut with Lapachhapi (2017), feels the Marathi audience is more evolved and accepting of new styles of storytelling. That is why he chose to make his debut in that language.

"The movie did well," he said. "A year before it was released, it got selected to 20 international film festivals where it mostly won. We released the movie in July 2017 and it stayed on in theatres for 11 weeks due to an amazing audience demand. All this after shooting the movie in 15 days flat!"

The director is currently working on the Hindi remake of Lapachhapi, titled Chhori, and wants to take things further in the horror department. "When it came to Lapachhapi, I had to strategically scale down my production given the budget constraints and limit the intensity of the film. But with the Hindi remake, we can scale up the scares," he said.

Besides Chhori, Furia is working on his second Marathi film, Bali (2020). Starring Swwapnil Joshi, the horror film went on the floors last November.