In Gaslight, a young woman named Meesha (Sara Ali Khan) returns to her royal family’s estate after 15 years to visit her father — only to find him missing. She’s quickly convinced that her father is dead and that his ghost is trying to communicate with her. Director Pavan Kirpalani, who has previously made films like Ragini MMS (2011), Phobia (2016) and Bhoot Police (2021), spoke to us about horror and storytelling.
Can you tell me about your interest in the supernatural?
I guess I've always liked this genre. It's also a great way to talk about issues and subtext that otherwise you cannot generally speak about. If you want to make a movie, it can really be a dramatic movie about gaslighting (but) it could be a tad bit boring. But if I make a movie about manipulation and deceit and wrap it up in a genre movie, it becomes more exciting. That was one of the things why I like the genre, it lets you tackle some interesting ideas that otherwise seem taboo or too intense. That's one part of it. The other part of it is just the pure escapism, the visceral instant gratification that this genre gives you. You really need to have a great handle on the visual and the audio language. That's what the movie depends on in genre movies. They sell on that. There's comedy, there's action. I like those genres as well. I like fantasy a lot.
In all the ghosts that you have written, what do you think is common?
The idea of the unknown is always (the) one thing that links everything. The thing about horror is in today's time it is very difficult to scare someone. Everything has become known. We know everything because of (the) overconsumption of information that we have from the internet. The fear of the unknown diminished and (that) scared me. That's the main thing that carries through all these movies - the fear of the unknown.
In most of your films, the ghost is a woman. What does that do to the story?
If you look at genre movies, thriller movies or a good horror film, women protagonists are like prototypes because they are vulnerable. You feel more for them, so seeing a woman come out of all those dangers, tribulations, and frights and empowering herself is a really great arc for these kinds of genre movies. Horror movies are generally very feminist, if I may say so.
Most of the ghosts in Hindi films are women who have been wronged. Why do you think that is?
Most people write ghost movies which are (about) chudails (witches) and eventually you try and give them an empathetic story so you root for them. Back in the day, the word was tagged to a woman who was outspoken, she was being a 'witch'. It happens even today in parts of our country. Women are stoned to death and harassed. I guess there is an idea of exploitation that happens here. I think we filmmakers are also sometimes perpetrators if we take advantage of it and make characters because of the obvious stereotype.
How do you think inducing fear works as a storytelling tool?
Like I said, the thing about fear is, it's instant gratification. It's a play of so many things. It's the play of the visual, the mood, the music and I just feel you really use the medium to the fullest when you are trying to induce fear. You can't rely on dialogues, you can't rely on anything else. All that you have to rely on is the staging and mise-en-scene, how your events play out. I think inducing fear is an extremely difficult thing to do. So many times we miss the mark, me included because everything has to fire at the right time, at the right moment. It's tricky. But it's great fun when it works.