Actor-director Virajas Kulkarni is looking forward to his debut directorial Victoria. Having acted in Marathi films and assisted his mother, actor-director Mrinal Kulkarni, Virajas is now excited to present to the audience his debut project. Victoria is a horror mystery film which is co-directed by Virajas and Jeet Ashok. Ahead of the release, the filmmaker opened up about making the film and audience expectations. Read the excerpt below:
Victoria is the Marathi film industry’s first horror mystery, tell us more about this genre. How easy/difficult was it working on this genre?
I’ve always had a soft spot for horror and mystery films. I started out in theatre 11 years ago and coincidentally, that was with a horror-comedy play, Anathema. As luck would have it, Jeet (Ashik, co-director) was in the principal cast of that play, and it is there that we noted our shared interest in the genre. We are still acting in that play 11 years later, which goes to show that our audiences also have an ardent interest in the genre. To tackle any genre, especially something like horror, which hasn’t been tackled a lot in Marathi, requires a complete immersion on the filmmaker’s side. The fact that we were fans of the genre first definitely helped craft the film into what it became.
How would you describe the process of writing this film, considering the two of you worked on it together?
We co-wrote this film with our friend Omkar Gokhale. Omkar had already etched out a version of the story that had the mystery part locked in, but that wasn’t a horror film yet. When I read it, I could see the potential for a good horror film embedded into the premise of his story. After a few brainstorming sessions, we took the call to give in to its horror leanings, and turn it into a full-fledged horror film.
What was the most difficult aspect of filming Victoria?
As it is with a lot of regional films, there is always the subject of budgetary constraints – especially when you start moving away from conventional genres. Horror, it can be argued, is a genre that requires technical perfection from every department. If anything falls short, the entire atmosphere can get destroyed. The genre is not a proven one, so there was financial risk attached, and the only way to make it work was by shooting it on the bare minimum resources, and in just 15 days of the shoot. I have to absolutely commend our technical team, with whom we have been working for the past decade, that they lived up to this seemingly impossible 15 days schedule, and delivered a really technically strong project.
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Did you draw influences or inspirations from any Hollywood or Bollywood films?
As I said, we love watching horror films. We try to watch as many as we can – and these films are not limited to Hollywood and Bollywood. Korean, Japanese, and Swedish horror films have been very innovative in the past, and are re-inventing the genre. Here we aren’t trying to re-invent, but to re-introduce the genre in Marathi. My grandfather’s first film as an actor was ‘Ha Khel Savlyancha’ which was a legendary horror mystery film in Marathi. This shows that the audience was always prepared to sink their teeth into it, and we are trying to spike their appetites for it again.
With audiences being extremely picky and selective post the pandemic. How do you think will Victoria connect with the audience?
The pandemic, I think, introduced audiences to the comfort of OTT, and watching content on their own terms, in the comforts of their homes. We are seeing a paradigm shift in the way content is consumed. To make people step out of their homes, drive to a theatre, and buy a ticket, they have to feel like you are offering an experience they will not get at home. A horror film like Victoria is exactly the kind of film that will be more fun to watch on the big screen, with other people. It is one of the guilty pleasures of the genre, where you drag some friend, who is scared, to the theatre, and watch it with them. Horror and mystery films, we have found, also become more interesting on repeated viewings. So, we hope people will not miss the chance to watch the thrilling sequences we have shot on the biggest screen possible.
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