The Hindi remake of 2013 super hit Hollywood horror Oculus titled Zahhak is currently on floor. This project is very special considering the fact that for the first time any big Hollywood horror is being remade in Hindi. So lets check what future this remake has in India. The original English film directed by Mike Flanagan was a critical as well as a commercial success. The story revolves around a brother and his sister; the boy is just out from a mental asylum on the charges of killing his father. The sister believes that it was not his brother who did it, but an ancient mirror, which was responsible. She convinced her brother for an experiment to expose the evil entity residing in the mirror but the demon proves way powerful beyond their imagination. The story is really terrific and there is no doubt about its success if the Hindi version doesn’t incorporate many changes.
For the acting part, in the English film all the main six characters did a tremendous job. The brother and sister duo with their childhood counter parts and the parents were all-great. In the Hindi version the part of the brother & sister is given to Huma qureshi and Saqib saleem respectively. The actors are promising and we can expect a good performance from them, though it shall be a challenge for Huma to justify the character of a confident, brave and intelligent girl as in the English version Karren Gillian has done a brilliant job. Another interesting thing will be to see who is going to play the child artists in the Hindi version as Annalise Basso and Garrett Ryan did a fabulous job too in it. Lisa Ray and Adil Hussain have been casted in the role of the parents who can justify their characters without any doubt.
For the seat of the director Relativity Media has hired Prawaal Raman, who has directed Hindi horror film Darna Mana Hai. He also seems to fit the role. There has been a boom of Hollywood horrors releasing in India in the last 4 years after the grand success of The Conjuring. Around 15-20 Hollywood horror films release in India every year in comparison to just 4-5 Hindi horror films. It shows that the audience in India wants more horror content and they don’t mind watching a dubbed or a remake of Hollywood horror for it. In the last three years alone several Hollywood horrors like Annabelle, Deliver us from evil, The Possession, Insidious chapter 3, The Pyramid, Vatican Tapes has done very good business.
So considering all these facts it is very sure that even if The Hindi counterpart is not remade up to the expectations, the box office figures will be encouraging.
