Pooja Bhatt, who starred in several successful films back in the 90s such as Dil Hai Ki MantaNahi (1991), Sadak (1991), Border (1997), and Zakhm (1998), is set to make her digital debut with Netflix’s upcoming streaming show Bombay Begums.
Written and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, Bombay Begums traces the lives of five ambitious women from different walks of life as they navigate their dreams, desires, and disappointments in modern-day Mumbai.
The team is presently busy promoting the show ahead of its grand premiere on March 8, coinciding with International Women’s Day. While promoting the show, Pooja Bhatt shared her thoughts on the recently announced streaming media regulations in India.
“Regulations are not new to us; we have been dealing with regulations all our lives. In the end, I think, it is the intention of the filmmaker that is communicated to anyone who is regulating you. I have always had a regulator or a censor board in my own heart and head, whatever seemed right to me I put out there, and I am ready to fight to the last breath for. I think strife and regulations actually instigate us to give that much more and come up with new ways to tell our tale. I think it is going to take a lot more than regulations to stop us from telling our stories the way we want to,” said the actress.
Talking about Bombay Begums, director Alankrita Shrivastava had earlier said, “It is the story of glass ceilings shattered, and also of the hearts broken in the process. I have tried to create a world that reflects the realities of urban working women.”
In addition to Pooja Bhatt, Bombay Begums also features Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash, Plabita Borthakur, Nauheed Cyrusi, Aadhya Anand, Rahul Bose, Imaad Shah, and Danish Husain on its ensemble cast.
The show is set to premiere on 8th March on Netflix.
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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