Vikram Bhatt

Template:Infobox person

Vikram Bhatt (Template:Lang-hi, born 27 January 1969) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter. He has more than 25 films to his credit. He is also the creative head of a conglomerate called ASA Productions and Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.

Early life[edit | edit source]

Vikram is the grandson of Vijay Bhatt, one of the pioneer of Indian films, and the son of cinematographer Pravin Bhatt.^[1]^[2]

Career[edit | edit source]

Bhatt started his career in 1982, at the age of 14, with the late director Mukul Anand in Anand's first film, Kanoon Kya Karega, working with him for six and a half months. Bhatt's last film with Mukul was the Indian cinema classic Agneepath, for which he was a chief assistant.

Subsequently, Bhatt worked with director Shekhar Kapur for two and a half years and later with director Mahesh Bhatt for two years, on films including Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke and Junoon.

His career as a director began with the film Jaanam, which was produced by Mukesh Bhatt. His first four films did not do well at the box office, his first success coming with Fareb. Following this, he had a string of successful films such as Ghulam, Kasoor, Raaz and Awara Paagal Deewana. After Awara Paagal Deewana , he entered a phase where his films did not do particularly well except for the odd Deewane Huye Paagal and the semi-biopic Ankahee.

In 2008, he came back with the success of his horror film, 1920. Shaapit followed in 2010, completing his successful horror trilogy.

In 2010, Bhatt pioneered in the field of stereoscopic 3D for the first time in India; his Haunted – 3D is the first stereoscopic 3D Hindi film. Haunted, released in May 2011, went on to become the highest grossing Hindi horror film of all time, making Rs. 270 million at the box office.

In 2012, Bhatt's Raaz 3D recorded domestic box office collection of 72.90 Crores after the 3rd weekend and the overseas collection was at 4.60 Crores.^[3] Riding high with the success, Bhatt is writing another horror-thriller for Bipasha in the central role, with a more shocking image than Raaz 3.^[4] Following the success of Raaz 3, Vikram Bhatt's written Hindi horror movie 1920: Evil Returns which has been directed by debutant Bhushan Patel topped the first weekend collection chart at the Box Office and the approximate collection was Rs 12.43 crores nett.^[5] The movie further collected approx Rs 3.75 cr nett in the second Weekend, taking the total to Rs 22.86 cr nett. The movie has been declared a 'Hit'.^[6] Soon after, Bhatt signed a deal with Bhushan Kumar's T-Series to produce 5 films of sci-fi, thriller and horror genre. Two of the films will be directed by Bhatt himself.^[7]

In early 2013, Bhatt announced his upcoming projects, Creature, India's First 3D Monster Movie with Bipasha Basu in the lead role^[8] and 1920 London, third in the 1920 series.^[9] Vikram Bhatt will mark his foray into Marathi cinema with 'Ek Doosrey Ke Liye', which will be directed by Ashwini Kumar Patil.