The company will create a horror cinematic universe that will deal with a combination of horror and black magic themes, he said.
Panorama Studios will be the second production company to create a franchise specifically dedicated to the horror genre in India. Recently, Maddock Films – known for producing one of the biggest blockbusters in Hindi, Stree 2 – announced a slate of eight new films which will be expanding its well-established horror movie series such as Stree, Munjya and Bhediya in the next three years.
Apart from the Dabbe remake, Panorama Studios plans to build a franchise of the movie Shaitaan, which will include two additional films. It also plans to remake Shaitaan in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. Recently, the studio announced a horror comedy film, Jhalak.
“Audience for horror films in India is quite large. The appetite for these films is very high. Importantly, the theme pulls audiences to theatres. But very few horror films are being made in Hindi,” said producer Rajesh Nair, known for films such as Kaminey and Adipurush.
“A horror film works well if it gets the three elements right: good writing, thrills and, of course, the horror in the film. A clear example is the film Munjya, which had no stars or known faces. It worked on the power of its storytelling,” he said, adding: “These are actually grandmother tales, which never fail in their charm and pull. Problems arise when makers focus away from writing and try to make ‘projects’ out of these films by making them bigger in scale.”
It is estimated that a horror film combined with different genres such as comedy, drama and thriller generally attracts at least 25% higher footfalls in theatres than a non-horror film. Also, a concept-based horror movie does not entail high investments like a spectacle or epic film.
“The horror genre is the most profitable across languages not only in India but also Hollywood. In fact, Blumhouse Productions in Hollywood is an entire production house dedicated to horror films,” said producer and film business expert Girish Johar. “I think horror films will revive the sentiment in the industry which is in doldrums right now.”
Last year, the theme of horror ruled not only the Hindi box office but also in the southern markets. In Hindi, films such as Stree 2, Shaitaan, Munjya and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 performed well, while Bramayugam and Aranmanai 4 recorded high collections in the South. Interestingly, the re-released horror film Tumbbad (2018) collected ₹52.2 crore at the box office. The horror genre has caught on so well in the Indian film industry that makers are experimenting with it by combining it with different genres. Recently, a sea-horror action-adventure trilogy called Kingston was announced, which will be released in Telugu and Hindi in March this year.
