20 years of Raaz: Bipasha Basu recalls scary experiences while shooting in Ooty

Bipasha Basu became part of a successful horror film early in her career through Vikram Bhatt’s Raaz (2002). She played Sanjana Dhanraj, a woman haunted by the spirit of the dead ex-lover Malini (Malini Sharma) of her husband (Dino Morea).

With Raaz completing 20 years today (the film was released on 1 February 2002), Basu took a trip down memory lane. In a statement, the actress recalled, "We were shooting in Ooty for the film and we had a lot of night sequences to shoot where I would wake up to sounds and walk into the forest. While the real location was a beautiful bungalow, the ambience around was cold, chilly, dimly lit and eerie. This would make the surroundings in the night so scary! And I had to walk alone into the wilderness in the cold wearing a nighty!”

Bhatt used some techniques to get a natural reaction from Basu during the shoot. “Vikram had this huge gong that he would unexpectedly ring to get the right reaction out of me," she laughed. "The first time he used the gong, I was absolutely caught unawares while walking in pin-drop silence. It was so scary that I shook and screamed loudly! I thought my soul left my body! After that, the gong became my biggest villain! He would use that gong at any point to get a crazy reaction out of me!”

As if this wasn’t enough, Basu had to be the audience to some ghost stories by the team. “In the night, everyone, including [choreographer] Saroj Khan, [co-star] Ashutosh Rana and Vikram Bhatt, would narrate the scariest ghost stories they have experienced,” she said. “It was quite crazy and made my job of getting scared a little easier. I definitely had my share of spooks during the filming of Raaz!”

According to the trade website BoxOfficeIndia.com, Raaz was made at a cost of around Rs5 crore and went on to earn Rs21 crore nett, thereby making it a super hit. It was this film that started Vikram Bhatt’s association with horror movies.

Following the success of Raaz, producers Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt continued the franchise with Raaz: The Mystery Continues (2009), Raaz 3: The Third Dimension (2012) and Raaz Reboot (2016). The 2009 movie was directed by Mohit Suri while the others were helmed by Vikram Bhatt.

Raaz was also helped by composer duo Nadeem-Shravan’s hit music. The songs from the film are still remembered by music lovers.