Best Horror Movies In Bollywood

A lady wearing a white saree, carrying a candle, with open hair, singing gumnaam hai koi and walking around the streets is what horror was in bollywood long time ago. Now the definition of horror has changed completely. There are major production houses who are specialists in making horror movies. Ramsay brothers were famous for both their famous horror movies and serials. Now this fort has been taken over by Ram Gopal Verma. He is an exceptional director and works miracles with horror movies. His movies like Darna Mana Hai and Bhoot have been major block busters and have won many awards too.

While the Ramsay movies and other lower budget movie makers' movies are filled with a lot of blood shed and creatures without hands and heads. Their movies normally don't have very big stars and there is a lot of skin show to increase the viewer ship of the movie. Now day's horror movies are made with a lot of class. There are very good scripts that are written with multiple plots. A major star cast of famous and good actors are signed for these movies. Since these kind of movies don't have much scope for song and dance sequences, special songs are shot only for the promotion of the film. Ramu was the first one to introduce this concept and this has changed the careers of many actresses. Sameera Reddy performed in one of the movies like this and it was instant fame for her.

Ever Top Bollywood Horror Films You Must Watch

• Bhoot- starring Ajay Devgan and Urmila Matondkar.
• 20 Saal Baad- starring Dimple Kapadia, Vinod Mehra, Meenakshi Sheshadiri and Mithun Chakraborthy.
• Mahal- starring Madhubala and Ashok Kumar.
• Jaani Dushman- starring Reena Roy, Jeetendra, Rekha and Sunil Dutt.
• Kudrat- starring Hema Malini, Rajesh Khanna and Raaj Kumar.
• Raat- starring Revathi Menon and Om Puri.
• Saaya- starring John Abraham and Tara Sharma.
• Kaal- starring Ajay Devgan, Lara Dutta, Vivek Oberoi, Esha Deol and John Abraham.
• Naina- starring Urmila Matondkar and Anuj Sawhney.
• Gehrayee- starring Anant Naag and Padmini Kolhapuri.

Top Bollywood Horror Films in 2009 You Must Watch it

• 13B- Starring Madhavan, Neetu Chandra, Saranya, Poonam Dhillon
• Agyaat
• Raaz - The Mystery Continues Starring Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, Adhyayan Suman
• Orphan
• Maa
• Aasma - The Sky Is The Limit Starring Hrishitaa Bhatt, Seema Biswas, Nauheed Cyrusi

It is difficult to do justice to horror films in Bollywood with the lack of documentation and material available on the subject. Therefore, this article has been written almost entirely on the basis of memory. As a result there will be certain oversights but the idea is to pay some kind of homage to a genre that has managed to maintain its niche in India's massive film industry.

The earliest 'horror' films in Indian cinema revolved around themes of reincarnation and rebirth. Basically they were the typical old-fashioned ghost story. The attempt was not to scare as much as to give the love story a new dimension. The most famous is probably Kamaal (Pakeezah) Amrohi's debut film, Mahal. Starring Madhubala and Ashok Kumar the film is a complicated ghost story, which sees Ashok Kumar moving into an abandoned mansion with a tragic history. It is also immortalised by Madhubala's beauty and Lata Mangeshkar's first major hit song 'Ayega Aanewala'. Atmospherically photographed in the German expressionist style appropriately by the German cameraman Joseph Wirsching the film is heralded as an all time classic.

The 1980s saw a qualitative change in the type of horror films being made by Bollywood. With VCRs making Hollywood horror films more accessible to Indian audiences, more and more filmmakers began 'remaking' famous horror films. In 1980 Padmini Kohlapure played the possessed child a la Linda Blair in the unnerving Gehrayee. Probably the best of the Exorcist inspired films, Gehrayee has a number of eerie sequences and an uncomfortable atmosphere. In a similar vein, Reena Roy and Feroz Khan starred in Jaadu Tona as the tormented guardians of Baby Pinky who is possessed by a spirit from a nearby Peepal tree. 1980 also saw Rajesh Khanna, super star of the 1970s, take on the role of a serial killer in the unsettling and original Red Rose. We learn that Rajesh Khanna's character was beaten by his mother as a child and then went through a number of unsavoury relationships with women leaving him disturbed and unhinged. In a much more radical move than the Shahrukhs and Sunjay Dutts of today, Khanna broke with his lover boy screen image and portrayed the disturbed woman hater who lured young women to his house, murdered them and buried them in his garden. Director Baharatirajaa tackled this unsavoury topic in a surprisingly direct manner but his slasher film was seen as anti women and triggered protests by feminists in Bombay and Delhi.

The Ramsays had succeeded in defining the Bollywood B movie genre. Their films relay a commitment to cinema - a delight in making films and deservedly they built up a committed audience. Starting from their initial horror success Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche in 1972 the Ramsay Brothers came into their own in the late 70s with films such as Darwaza and Guest House - the latter famously starring a chopped hand. The 80s remained their most prolific period and brought such hits as Sannata (1980), Dahshat (1980), Purana Mandir (1984), Haveli (1985), Saamri (1985), Veerana (1985), Tahkhana (1986), Dak Bangla (1987), Purani Haveli (1989), Shaitani Ilaaka (1990). Most of the themes revolved around evil spirits and deformed creatures terrorising villages. The most popular targets were thinly clad women and in between the horror there was a liberal sprinkling of sex and as much nudity as could be passed by the censors. It was a successful formula and one that was rarely deviated from.