Mumbai, March 11

Bollywood director Vikram Bhatt, after two successful horror films to his credit, is out to scare again. He describes his forthcoming film "Shaapit" as a narration of how a curse works.

"The curse is such an old thing in Indian ethos and we have seen its influence even in Indian mythologies like Ramayana and Mahabharata," Vikram Bhatt told IANS after a press conference here Thursday.

"The curse played a pivotal role in Indian stories and mythologies, but I don't think there is any film made on the subject. So I thought that it would be an interesting thing to make a film on a curse and how it works in one's life," Vikram said.

"I did some research and a very important fact emerged. It was how a curse actually functions. The person who has cursed and the person who has been cursed may no longer be there but the curse remains on their family for generations," he explained.

Vikram is known for launching new faces and in "Shaapit" he introduces Aditya Narayan and Shweta Agarwal in the lead roles.

"I think the casting of any film depends on the subject you are dealing with. There are some subjects that don't work without a star and there are some subjects that don't need a star. I think horror by itself is a star, because people go to get scared and in that if you have Shweta and Adi, it is a fantastic launch for them," Vikram said.

The story of "Shaapit" revolves around Aman (Aditya Narayan) who proposes to Kaaya(Shweta Agarwal) but neither of them knows that there is a curse that plagues Kaaya's family.

"Before starting this film, I did a course of psychic meditation. By psychic meditation we can speak to spirits. With constant meditation you can avoid that too. I have seen spirits. If we believe that there is a spirit in every body then we have to believe that after we die the spirit remains. It's all about belief," Vikram said.

Vikram Bhatt had directed the horror film "Raaz" in 2002 and "1920" in 2008.