Varun Dhawan’s upcoming film ‘Bhediya’ was recently again in the news for wrapping up its nearly one-and-a-half-month-long schedule in the scenic pine-clad town ‘Ziro’ in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. Earlier, Varun Dhawan had shared the film’s teaser on a social media platform. You can watch the teaser below.
The 38-second teaser revealed a man, standing on a cliff’s edge, transforming into a wolf against a beautiful yet ominous full-moon backdrop.
The teaser made us jog our memories about several filmmakers’ recent attempts (globally) to nail the exciting yet underutilized horror-werewolf genre. The genre has seen an unpredictable mix of box office failure and critical successes, and vice-versa.
In what can be described as the advent of modern werewolf films, it began with the three trend-setting films which released in the year 1981. These films were ‘American Werewolf in London’, ‘The Howling’, and ‘Wolfen’. The former and also the most genre-defining film had even won the ‘Best Makeup’ Oscar Award.
The immense popularity of these films was later followed by ‘Back to the Future’ star Michael J. Fox’s comedic take on the werewolf genre: ‘Teen Wolf’ (1985).
Almost after a decade’s hiatus, the genre was reinvented in three times Oscar Award-winner Jack Nicholson’s ‘Wolf’. Michelle Pfeiffer was cast opposite Nicholson and James Spader was the main antagonist. The film also featured Indian actor Om Puri in a special role. The movie was praised for its execution and Nicholson’s performance.
Another Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins tried his hands on the werewolf genre with the 2010 film ‘The Wolfman’. It also featured ‘Sicario’ actor Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt. The period film bagged an Oscar in the best makeup category.
Some other honorable mentions include the action-horror flick ‘Dog Soldiers’, ‘Underworld’ and ‘Van Helsing’ (starring Hugh Jackman), amongst others.
But when we wrecked our brains to recollect Indian werewolf-themed films, we hit a wall there. The closest and perhaps the only film that came within the ambit of the pure horror-werewolf genre was Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Junoon’ (starring Rahul Roy and Pooja Bhatt).
‘Junoon’ was reportedly inspired by the previously mentioned 1981 film ‘An American Werewolf in London’. Nevertheless, the film generally received positive reviews (Although the wolf was replaced by a tiger for some reason). But it was still a far cry from its much older parent film. Despite a sincere effort, it left a lot to be desired.
Which brings up an interesting question with an uninteresting answer: ‘Why Indian filmmakers have eschewed the idea of creating an out-and-out horror-werewolf film?’ Especially considering universal fascination for the creature-horror genre amongst movie watchers worldwide.
The first reason behind werewolf films not being made is simply because the make-up part is grueling, time-consuming, and most importantly, costs a bomb. Besides, the essence of a well-made werewolf film further boils down to top-notch creature effects (VFX).
The most important element of the latter is certainly the werewolf transformation scene (the technical word is called ‘Lycanthropy’). We had a glimpse of Lycanthropy in the teaser of Varun Dhawan’s ‘Bhediya’.
Although, like many other creature-horror fests (including, we dare say, Steven Spielberg’s first ‘Jurassic Park’ movie), the VFX were smartly concealed under a dark setting. Although there is nothing wrong with that if the efforts are sincere.
Secondly, is the lack of imagination to ideate and execute a decent werewolf horror film. This is applicable not only for Indian filmmakers but there is an evident dearth of ideas even amongst Hollywood filmmakers particularly in respect of the werewolf genre.
We may have seen loads of vampire and zombie-centric films from eminent filmmakers including Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead), Francis Lawrence (I am legend), and Marc Foster (World War Z). But unfortunately, that’s not the case with their werewolf comrades.
The viewpoint pertaining to lack of original and inventive ideas amongst Indian filmmakers was beautifully described by acclaimed actor Aamir Khan in one of his interviews when he was asked his opinion regarding Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi flick ‘Interstellar’ by a famous Indian critic. You can watch the reply that Aamir Khan gave, in the following video.
Coming back to the first reason relating to the whopping cost of creating the required VFX, which is the hallmark of good creature-horror films.
We would like to contradict our own reasoning by quoting an example of an Indian film achieving the feat of exhibiting exemplary make-up skills and remarkable special effects in the Tamil film ‘I’. The film was helmed by celebrated filmmaker S. Shankar and featured acclaimed actor ‘Vikram’.
While promoting his film, the ‘Raavanan’ actor stunned his fans when he performed in a stage show with co-star Amy Jackson in an immaculate ‘Werewolf’ getup. The event was attended by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rajnikanth, and A.R.Rahman. You can watch the event video below.
The point is that Indian filmmakers have previously made really expensive films like Shankar’s own film ‘2.0’ (Rs.570 crores budget), ‘Saaho’ (Rs.350 crores budget), ‘Zero’ (Rs.200 crores budget), ‘Thugs of Hindustan’ (Rs.220 crores budget), etc. So, it’s evident that money is not the only problem here. Equally important is the will to imagine an original story and to earnestly execute it.
There is an obvious risk, albeit, which can pay rich dividends if the project is implemented with conviction by a visionary Indian filmmaker including the above-mentioned names.
We are mighty glad that the combo of producer Dinesh Vijan, Niren Bhatt (Writer – Bala, Asur, Inside Edge) and Amar Kaushik (Director – Stree, Bala) have taken the maiden plunge to take forward the comedy-horror franchise with their werewolf-themed film ‘Bhediya’.
We fell in love with the film’s teaser and are keeping our fingers crossed and hope that the film is as good as the teaser and does justice to the underexplored genre. Even if it’s a gamble, it’s a lionhearted (or ‘wolf-hearted’ we should say) gamble worth taking.
‘Bhediya’ is slated to release on April 14, 2022, and features Kriti Sanon, Deepak Dobriyal and Abhishek Bannerjee in prominent roles.
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