Dinesh Vijan’s vision: Creating a horror comedy universe in Bollywood

Producer-director Dinesh Vijan is a man with a plan. Vijan, who last year produced Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor-starrer Stree, hopes to build cinematic universe in the horror-comedy genre.

After Stree, the producer on Wednesday announced horror-comedy, Rooh-Afza, which he will follow-up with "Munjha", another project in the same space.

"There are three horror comedies which are being developed and then they will start meeting (at some point). There will be Stree 2, after Rooh-Afza and Munjha. "After that there will be Rooh-Afza 2 and Munjha 2. The sequels will kind of meet each other, just cross paths," Vijan said in an interview.

The producer says while shooting for Stree, which was one of the major hits of 2018, they started developing Rooh-Afza, about a singing ghost who puts grooms to sleep on their wedding nights to possess their brides.

He said the third film, Munjha, will revolve around a male ghost looking for his bride. Stree was about a female ghost terrorising the male population of a small town.

"It has been in the planning stage from the last two years. There are three different teams who don't know each other and have developed the three films.

"But I have a blueprint in my mind that I'm going to make all the three films meet. So the last shot of Munjha will meet Rooh-Afza and so on." The idea of creating a franchise crossed Vijan's mind when he met a Hollywood artiste, who has worked on all of Christopher Nolan's films, and they talked about cinematic universes.

For the grand plan to work, both Rooh-Afza and Munjha have to work and the producer is aware of it.

"I'm betting big on the next two films and we need to up the game. Munjha needs to be a better film than Stree. Rooh-Afza has to be a balancing factor. Then, I will have my universe in the next five years," he says.

If all goes well, the finale of the universe could be a two-part or three-part series where everything comes together.

"So let's assume 2023 is where all the films should meet. This year will be Rooh-Afza, 2020 will be Munjha and 2021 will be Stree 2. Sometime later that year, there will be Rooh-Afza 2 and then 2022 will be Munjha 2. Then you do that massive film where all these meet." With Rao recurring in Rooh-Afza, Vijan hopes other cast members would also return in the future though there is no contract in place.

"Raj is like 'ghar ka' (a family member). Also they all want to return. Why will you leave your franchise? "I don't do legal binding. I don't believe in it. I feel I have been blessed with actors who all have trust in me. They all want to be part of Stree 2. This is the universe and that's why Raj is also in Rooh-Afza," he says.

The producer is currently promoting rom-com Luka Chuppi, which features Kriti Sanon and Kartik Aaryan. The film hits the theatres on Friday.