Jagmeet Singh Samundri says silence plays an important role in his horror flick Vash Possessed By The Obsessed

Mona

Filmmaker Jagmeet Singh Samundri is in love with thrillers, and he brings suspense, horror, thriller into his next outing. Vash Possessed By The Obsessed is written, edited and directed by Samundri, a filmmaker from Punjab, who calls Mumbai home now.

“Thriller is my favourite genre and I wanted to blend horror with suspense, and make use of the visual effects that I am well versed with now,” opens up the director of Saka: The Martyrs of Nankana Sahib. It took him about a year to pen the story. He zeroed down on Himachal Pradesh for location, and is pretty pleased with the results. “Our film, a mix of a love story with four songs, also is an edge-of-seat thriller.”

Samundri has roped in fresh faces for this one – Ganga Mamgai and Vivek Jaitly. The sound design is done by Madhav Vijay, cinematography is by Manoj Shaw and music by UK-based Mukhtar Sahota. “Sound is an integral part of a horror film, we have tried to play with silences,” says Samundri, who seemingly enjoyed the entire process.

Talking about the climax scene, he says, “We shot it over 20 days and lasts for about 15 minutes.”

Amongst his favourites in this genre, Samundri puts Lights Out on the top of his list. “Interestingly, this got Hollywood funding after a short on YouTube and did brisk business.”

In India, horror flicks mostly see a limited outing, baring exceptions like Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, which was a horror comedy. He says, “There is a niche audience for horror. Our Indian horror films do well on single screens, but multiplex audiences, specially the youth, prefer Hollywood horror films. Lately Krishna Bhatt directed 1920: Horrors of the Heart did well on single screens.”

Keeping in mind the target audience, Vash Possessed By The Obsessed sees a pan- India release in about 200 screens on July 21.