Interview: Vikram Bhatt
By: Simran Mody, India Correspondent
In the horrific fight between good and evil, filmmaker Vikram Bhatt believes love will conquer all and allow goodness to prevail over the darkness. Ironically, while such a concept loosely serves as a foundation of the latest film he helmed in Shaapit, Bhatt himself is in the dark when it comes to romance.
Strikingly odd that a man who is happily single would, in the same breath, visually tell the tale of the power of love between a man and a woman. Bhatt has come to firmly believe one does not necessarily need to find a soul-mate in order to consider one’s life whole.
Of course, it does help that Bhatt attempted to experience love, albeit his ventures have been well-publicized for better or worse. Yet, after experiences in love that may be aptly labeled as horrific – including one divorce and two romantic links gone bad – it seems fitting for the acclaimed director to present a cross of both heart-affected emotions in the upcoming release of Shaapit.
In talking to the press this past week, however, Bhatt focused only on one of those emotions – love.
“Yes, I will give love a chance, but then it has to indeed be ‘love.’ Let that happen naturally,” Bhatt told the press this week as he promoted Shaapit. “See, the fact is I don’t see myself reaching home in the night, feeling lonely and then getting the feeling that ‘arre yaar, it’s bad to be alone; I should rather hook up with someone.’”
Bhatt went on to frankly tell the press that living life without loving a significant other is not as horrific as many would dogmatically think.
“I have realized that no one but you can complete yourself,” Bhatt told reporters with candor and conviction. “It is actually nonsense to seek someone to be complete in life. You can be single and still so complete.”
Of course, it helps to have done as much as Bhatt has with his professional career. Not only is he featuring a fresh cast in this week’s release of Shaapit, but he has worked with some of Bollywood’s biggest names, such as Aamir Khan.
With his professional acumen as a director and filmmaker, Bhatt confesses that such leaping progress helps him easily deal with broken hearts at the expense of Bollywood lovelies he has publicly dated – Sushmita Sen and Amisha Patel.
“I am happy to be living life the way it is currently, and I don’t intend to mold it any differently. However, I am not bitter at all,” Bhatt told the press of his post-dating life. “Why should I be? But now the love which comes to me has to be really special. I am not at all unhappy in my current state, and I am, in fact, raring to go, as far as my personal and professional life is concerned.”
Good thing he pointed out to the press he is “not at all unhappy” in his current position, because he may have to convince himself he is still happy if Shaapit happens to open to a lackluster box-office this weekend, what with two other major releases competing for audiences and Bollywood fans not yet fully warm to horror films.
Either way, Bhatt will have to take what he gets and just be happy with it. Otherwise, his life will be full of horror, and where is the love in that?
Shaapit opens on March 19th across India and stars Aditya Narayan, Shweta Aggarwal and Rahul Dev.
The film is about a young man who proposes to a young woman, but the woman does not realize she is about to be engaged to a man who comes from a cursed family — and that curse was transferred to her when her new fiance slipped the engagement ring onto her finger. As a series of dangerous events transpire, the new couple must find away to use their love battle as a weapon of good in the impending battle against evil forces.
(Editor’s Note: The Indo-American News Service contributed to this story.)
