With the speed at which Bollywood is busy acquiring rights to successful South Indian films, audiences should brace themselves for a deluge of remakes in the coming few years.
At present, almost a dozen remakes are in the works in Bollywood. And if reports are to be believed, superstar Akshay Kumar recently helped Pooja Films nab the rights to the superhit Telugu-language psychological thriller Rakshasudu.
While there is no clarity on whether or not Kumar will topline the project, producer Koneru Satyanarayana has revealed that the superstar indeed approached them for the film’s rights to remake it in Hindi.
Earlier, Satyanarayana himself wanted to remake the film in Hindi, but when the coronavirus pandemic threw a wrench into the works, he happily sold the rights to Pooja Films. However, filmmaker Ramesh Varma, who directed the original, will helm the remake as well.
“Akshay Kumar had approached us to give the rights to Pooja Films and we readily gave away the rights as we felt he would be perfect for the role. Since we could not do the film, we gave the rights to Pooja Films. Ramesh Varma will be making his Bollywood debut with the movie,” the producer said in a statement.
Starring Bellamkonda Sreenivas in the lead role, Rakshasudu revolves around the newly appointed Sub-inspector Arun Kumar, who goes after a notorious serial killer who targets teenage girls. However, he has to pay a terrible price for his assiduous investigation.
Meanwhile, Akshay Kumar is awaiting the release of his much-awaited film Bell Bottom. Also starring Lara Dutta, Huma Qureshi, and Vaani Kapoor in principal roles, the espionage thriller is set for a theatrical release on August 19, after facing some delay in its release due to the ongoing pandemic. The Ranjit M Tiwari directorial has been produced by Pooja Entertainment and Emmay Entertainment.
Keep visiting this space over and again for more updates and reveals from the world of entertainment.
Bollywood horror has gone mainstream: bigger budgets, big stars, family audiences.
Roots: Mahal (1949) to the Ramsay Brothers' cult run of the 1970s–80s.
Modern hits pair folklore with comedy, as seen in Tumbbad, Stree, Munjya, and now Thamma & Maa.
Technical leap: prosthetics and CGI have "gone to the next level"; budgets now reach mainstream scale.
Remember when Bollywood horror meant creaky doors in a haunted haveli and a woman in a white sari? Forget it. We are in an era where a ghost's main ambition is not revenge, but finding a wife, where ancient mythology collides with suburban kitchens, and a mother's love can literally summon a goddess. The genre has exploded into the mainstream, and clearly everyone is buying a ticket.
The horror revolution: How Bollywood turned ghosts, goddesses, and gore into gold Instagram/thammamovie/netflix_in/maddockfilms
Where did this all begin?
The lineage is long. Kamal Amrohi's Mahal (1949), a chilly, melodramatic original, is often cited as Hindi horror's starting point. The Ramsay Brothers then carried the torch through the 1970s and 80s, churning out roughly 30 low-budget creature features that made haunted havelis a cult staple. Their old formula was simple: lurid gore, sex, and cheap shocks because "blood and sex pulled crowds."
As Deepak Ramsay puts it, "There are new stories, fresh talent, and all of this is leading to a resurgence. Films that were once niche are turning out to be blockbusters."
Kamal Amrohi's Mahal Youtube Screengrab
Why is Bollywood horror trending now?
Two things: smarter storytelling and better tech. Filmmakers stopped copying Western ghosts and started mining local myths, as seen in Tumbbad and Stree, and they mixed scares with laughs.
"The moment you get scared, your first reaction after the shock is to laugh," Ram Gopal Varma says, and that laugh is the neat trick, making scares sharable.
Aditya Sarpotdar explains the appeal bluntly: "There is a huge audience wanting to watch such movies. When catering to mass audiences, humour becomes key." His Munjya proved it: "Children pulled their parents to theatres." You cannot get more mainstream than that.
For decades, horror was the B-movie cousin no one wanted to acknowledge. Big stars stayed away, the effects were cheap, and an 'Adults' certificate locked out half the family audience. But not anymore. Maa (June 2025) saw Kajol in a mythic, bloody role that shocked and thrilled the audience. Thamma (Diwali 2025) is being billed as "a bloody love story" with Ayushmann Khurrana and Rashmika Mandanna in a vampire-romance that pairs fangs with dance numbers. Sequels and studio universes hits like Stree 2, Chhorii 2, and lighter fare like The Bhootnii keep the pipeline full.
Deepak Ramsay even points to the tech shift: "From as little as £20,000 to make a horror film, now budgets are closer to £7.2 million."
Veterans say prosthetics and CGI have "gone to the next level," so monsters finally look convincing.
Bollywood horror is having a moment, and it's brilliant
However, the quick, messy truth is the genre still trips; it suffers from a tonal wobble and silly beats, but it is honest. Horror has stopped hiding at midnight and is selling tickets at matinées. Directors joke about the next move. "I would love to see Shah Rukh Khan attempt horror," says Sarpotdar, but the point is clear. What was once pulpy trash has become a lively, profitable stretch of mainstream cinema. It is rough around the edges, loud, sometimes ridiculous, and that is exactly why it is working.
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