The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Varma hopes to spook fans with his ‘Phoonk’

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Varma hopes to spook fans with his ‘Phoonk’

Staff Reporter

— Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

DRAWING FROM LIFE: Director Ram Gopal Verma, producer Azam Khan, actor Sudeep in Bangalore on Thursday.

Bangalore: In an attempt to explore seemingly uncharted territory yet again, Ram Gopal Varma brings to audiences Phoonk with Kannada actor Sudeep.

Speaking to presspersons here on Thursday after exclusive trailers were both Sudeep and Varma, along with producer Azam Khan who runs One More Thought Entertainment Private Limited, the producer of the film.

After trailer sequences that were meant to showcase the tussle between “faith and non-belief”, with its repetitive tagline — “It’s superstition till it happens to you”, Varma spoke about how special the movie was to him because of both its content and its genre.

“I think it is the first movie of its kind, because no one has ever dealt with black magic before,” he said.

Phoonk deals with supernatural forces in an urban setting, using black magic this time, replete with motifs of everyday situations that have turned bizarre. Sudeep plays Rajiv, a construction engineer with a wife and two children and a firm atheist, who is then faced with extraordinary forces that make him review his beliefs.

“A story on black magic can be hard to do, and in that sense this is certainly a unique film,” said Sudeep.

He added that the movie was technically sound and had some great effects to frighten audiences.

Similarity

In response to questions about the more than casual similarity to the cult film The Exorcist made in 1973 by William Friedkin, Varma said that most movies based on the supernatural were bound to have some similarities.

He emphasised that it was a film that was treading the thin line between superstition and what we perceive as reality, and what happens when are faced with something we cannot rationalise.

Varma also said that Phoonk did draw on certain real life experiences, and while he was not necessarily superstitious, he could not be completely convinced of his position on superstition either.

The “Phoonk Challenge”, which promises a prize of Rs. 5 lakh to anyone who watches the movie alone in a theatre, will probably begin a week before the release date of August 22, he said.

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