The Indian film industry has seen several experimental and unconventional horror films and series lately such as Pari, Stree, Tumbbad, Ghoul and Ghost Stories, which have elevated the standard of storytelling. One of the most recent horror shows, Dahan, tries to show a unique story where traditions and beliefs are at loggerheads as the rural meets the urban. The show’s writers Nisarg Mehta, Shiva Bajpai and Nikhil Nair, who joined News18 for an exclusive chat, shared their insight into how they created a world which takes inspiration from a lot of films, but at the same time, is a uniquely Indian story.
They also shared their love for horror as a genre and gave their inputs on what can be possibly improved when it comes to Indian films and series of this genre.
Excerpts:
Tell us about the inception of the story.
Shiva Bajpai: Vikranth was very interested in this idea of urban and rural and what happens when the beliefs of urban people and rural people mix. How do both sides reconcile when both beliefs meet and an unexplained phenomenon happens, and how do they explain what’s happening? That was the starting point. The real fun of it was creating a world that didn’t exist except in our minds. Then we fought a lot about this fictitious world and the things that can and cannot happen there.
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Nikhil Nair: It is not just the conflict between the urban and the rural or belief systems or progressive versus conservative. We wanted these two belief systems to address the same issue. Of course, there is the rational side which will look at something which you can’t explain and try to assess it for what it is and analyze it. And there’s the ancient side, or the conservative or traditional side, which will look at something and will have its own story behind it.
That’s the kind of balance we have tried to strike with the story. We created a world from scratch, and we put a lot of lore and history into it, not necessarily as a part of the plot, but in our mind, for our research.
Nisarg Mehta: One character says that this is a fight between Vikaas (development) and Viswas (belief). That’s also true with everything that’s happening around us. As day by day, we are moving towards progress and development, we have come into a time where different belief systems are at loggerheads with each other. It seems to be the case that development and beliefs can’t go hand in hand. However, we’ve tried to show that there is a way for you to adhere to certain beliefs and work towards development.
How much do you see development and beliefs clashing in our society?
Nisarg: Not just in society, in everything. The other day, we were having a conversation on the concept of inertia. Things which are at rest tend to remain at rest, and things are which are in motion tend to remain in motion. That’s what we face in our daily lives. For example, if you are living alone and another person comes in, there’ll be conflict, and that conflict will give rise to drama. And that’s the drama that we’ve been trying to tap into our stories. Conflicts are bound to happen but conversations are important, and there is a way for things to coexist.
Does anyone of you believe in the existence of the supernatural?
Nikhil: I think we’re all healthy sceptics here. I don’t necessarily believe in that but I’ve seen exorcisms and I’ve seen things that I can’t really explain. But that’s the quality of living in a place like that and growing up with these stories. So I think that’s also what the show is trying to examine. You put these healthy sceptics in such an environment, how do they react?
Horror inspiration.
Nikhil: We are big horror nerds and we all grew up on a lot of horror stuff. That’s something that we discovered about each other as we were working. Shiva, Nisarg and Vikranth came up with their own set of horror ideas and we wanted every brand of horror. Such as the Lovecraftian, the Ramsay Brothers’ films, and the modern ones like Insidious and Conjuring brand of horror that seems to be ]mainstream today. We went back to Kubrick, Spielberg and John Carpenter and these are all big influences.
But with all of that in mind, we were very particular we wanted to create something uniquely Indian and very exclusively an Indian style of storytelling. It’s a hodgepodge of ideas and you’ll find a lot of these influences. There are different kinds of horror in the show, including a lot of metaphorical horrors as well that don’t need a supernatural presence. You have a relationship that was toxic, that’s horror in itself.
Shiva: Vikranth gave us such a wide canvas and told us to do whatever we want to. So we really did incorporate a lot of different subgenres within.
Nisarg: One thing that all of us were kind of on the same page of was that the successful supernatural thrillers are the ones where they are able to make you care for the characters. You’re afraid on their behalf. Recently, we’ve seen Midnight Mass, Haunting of the Hill House or Haunting of the Bly Manor and in those, there is not so much shock and awe as much as you are invested in those characters. You’re really worried about their struggles and that’s what we try to concentrate on.
Talking about the kind of horror films and shows we have in India, what would you say is the one thing we are lacking and can possibly improve?
Nikhil: You need to have the conviction to deliver on your scares. Everybody is not going to be equally scared of everything but it’s about what you believe in. And you have to embrace horror as a genre without mixing it with other genres. As a big fan of horror films, I’m kind of downbeat about a lot of these ideas being turned into horror comedies. It’s because I’m a purist and I love my horror. Even if I’m not scared of it, I’m fascinated with it. So that’s one attempt that we have done in the writing of it and making of it. We have embraced horror completely, regardless of whether it works for the audience.
The second thing I would say, which I found lacking, and which we try to work with the show is not to explain away everything rationally. The idea is, this place has a story and you have to take that story at face value. With all your scepticism and your urban education, you will not be able to deal with it. And maybe not everything will be explained even by the end of the series. That is the point of true horror that it’s not explained. For me, that would be the elements that are lacking and the things that we’ve beefed up in this show.
Nisarg: You have created a world which is as close to reality as possible and you have to be true to it. There are certain rules which apply in that world so you have to be consistent with those rules. For instance, suppose there is a character who can run very fast. But wherever the need arises, he can be very strong also. So it changes as per convenient. You don’t pay attention to it while it’s happening but when you come back after watching the film, you wonder about it. So if you have made a world, you have to stick to those.
Which Indian horror shows or films do you all like?
Nisarg: I like Ram Gopal Varma’s Raat a lot.
Shiva: Bhool Bhulaiyaa part one.
Nikhil: I love the Malayalam version of it, I have to raise that flag. The original Malayalam version in the ’90s is called Manichitrathazhu which is an iconic film. It scared the crap out of me. I did not sleep for many, many nights after I saw that.
Directed by Vikranth Pawar, the series is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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