Karan Johar ventures into horror genre with Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship

Bollywood is ready for the latest addition to its list of horror franchise. Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship features Vicky Kaushal and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead roles, and is directed by debutant director Bhanu Pratap Singh, who had earlier worked with Shashank Khaitan in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) as assistant director.

The movie will be produced by Karan Johar along with Singh, Hiroo Johar and Apoorva Mehta. Sharing the first look poster of the movie, Pednekar noted that she was excited for the "special role."

Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship is based on a real life incident of a haunted ship in Mumbai. The idea of the movie was pitched by Bhanu, Shashank’s schoolmate and a horror movie enthusiast. The script was then developed by the duo and presented to

Karan Johar’s Dharma productions.

Karan Johar said, “Horror is a massively successful genre worldwide and I was excited to begin Dharma's first franchise. Bhoot is the first part of our horror franchise and we are beginning our journey with the exceptionally talented Vicky Kaushal."

In fact, Karan Johar found the script innovative and wanted to make it a series. The name 'Bhoot' was chosen as he wanted a title that was simple and basic. As there was already a movie by that name, directed by Ram Gopal Varma in 2003, the production house approached the director to buy the rights for the title.

Varma reacted to the first look poster with a tweet. “Hey @karanjohar the poster is looking WOW! Can’t wait to see the intense @vickykaushal09 in this genre,” he wrote.

The poster features a bruised Kaushal screaming out for help in a wrecked ship even as he is being strangled by a ghost. The actor had tweeted saying, "Nothing haunts you more than reality”.

The shooting of the movie has been completed and post-production work is underway. The movie will hit cinemas on November 15, 2019.