Dystopia in 'Ghoul' helped express what we wanted to without getting lynched: director Graham

Director Patrick Graham on Saturday said the dystopian setting of horror series "Ghoul" provided a base for the story that the team wanted to narrate "without getting lynched".

The Netflix India Original follows a prisoner who arrives at a remote military interrogation centre and turns the tables on his interrogators, exposing their most shameful secrets. It featured Radhika Apte, Manav Kaul and Mahesh Balraj.

Graham said they wanted to steer clear of making any direct comment on the current situation in India.

"I think the reason the dystopia came about was because we were worried about making too obvious a comment on contemporary India. We thought we should distance it slightly from reality to kind of allow us to explore areas that otherwise we might have tried to tread carefully on.

"So we kind of set it in an alternative kind of near future which I think kind of helped us express what we wanted to express without getting lynched," the director said.

He was speaking at NDFC's Film Bazaar Knowledge Series session "The 'Horror Platter'", moderated by filmmaker Bhaskar Hazarika.

Graham said the script originally was penned for a two-hour film, not a three-part series.

"It was always in the back of my mind that we were setting it in a slightly dystopian skewed reality but being able to add on in the beginning like allowing me to explore the dystopia a lot more. So it kind of developed a lot more," he added.

Graham said that horror does not have to have a supernatural element.

He explained that Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" would have been horrific "even if you take away the haunted house" as the elements of "domestic violence" and "mental illness" would still be there.

This was something he incorporated in "Ghoul" with the torture at the detention centre, he said.

Also part of the panel were writer-director duo Raj & DK and "Tumbaad" cinematographer Pankaj Kumar.

"Stree" co-writer Raj Nidimoru said that he grew up on films that were "wrong inspirations". Be it the film "The Flesh Eaters", that was his first image of a horror and left him aghast for as it "didn't have any sense to it" or the legend of Nale Ba that he and partner Krishna DK heard when they were studying engine.

"We do a lot of things out of superstitions and mob mentality. That this will ward off a ghost or evil. So pretty much all the inherent Indian urban legends that I have heard of always had something that was illogical or something that was missing.

"So 'Stree' formed that where it could represent perfectly that what we are afraid of and when we step back, it looks kind of funny. This idea came about. We could turn it on its head. We were looking for something that would satisfy us more as filmmakers where you are doing more than just as a genre," Raj said.

He said it was encouraging to see the horror genre get respect which was long due and cited the example of "Get Out", that not only performed well at the box office but also got nominated for multiple Oscars this year. The film eventually won the Best Original Screenplay Award for director Jordan Peele.

"Not only because they are relevant and have something to say but also because they don't do your usual tropes to scare you or create a situation of false scares. They are giving you an atmosphere that it's going to affect you psychologically that 'Oh shit! This is the dystopian view of the world.' They put you in a situation that is fearful by itself.

"'Stree' can also be a blockbuster, where we thought we'll be able to do that or make for mainstreaming," Raj said.