Bollywood depending on Zombies for BO success

Zombies used to be the favorites of Hollywood and Korean films but for quite long, Bollywood stayed away from it.

But now, it seems Bollywood is getting smitten by Zombies and are depeding on them for success at the box office. Teja Sajja and Shanaya Kapoor are coming with Zombie Reddy sequel directed by Prashanth Varma. Ranveer Singh is starring in Pralay which is adapted from Portuguese Nobel laureate José Saramago’s novel Blindness, the film also marks the directorial debut of Jai Mehta, son of filmmaker Hansal Mehta.

Raj and DK earlier came with Go Goa Gone in 2013. Speaking to scribes, they share “We wanted to do something that didn’t exist in India. We’d just finished Shor in the City and wanted to make something completely different. The idea was also to mirror the lives of slackers living a zombie-like existence in an exaggerated way. As the dialogue says, ‘India mein bhoot pishach hote hain, yeh zombie kahan se aaye?’ We wanted to make a zombie film for beginners. Today, people ask us about a sequel, but we’d rather let Go Goa Gone remain what it is.”

Nikhil Mahajan who directed Betal for Netflix in 2020 says “Patrick Graham’s vision and writing were so strong that saying yes was a no-brainer. The biggest challenge wasn’t making zombies — it was the audience’s unfamiliarity with the genre. Zombies have never been part of mainstream Indian pop culture. But younger viewers consume Korean and Western content regularly, so I’m optimistic the time is finally right.”

Raj Nidimoru says “Since Go Goa Gone, audiences have watched a lot of international content. If we’re making zombie films today, they have to match the production quality of Hollywood and South Korean cinema. That’s the real challenge.”

Nikhil Mahajan adds “The audience is gradually warming up to zombie stories. When top stars back these films, they naturally reach a much wider audience. That’s exactly the boost the genre needs.”

---- Pramod Nandivada