CAMPUS EVENTS CULTURE ADVENTURE I’M A SAD SACK WRITING INTENSE LOVE STORIES

Says filmmaker Vikram Bhatt, whose book is dedicated to all those who’ve had a broken heart and the strength to love again

If filmmaker Vikram Bhatt’s horror films make you shiver, his writing will leave you shaken. Such is the intensity of romance that the writer-director displays in his book, A Handful of Sunshine – a fictionalised story of two characters, Veer and Mira.

If Veer is Vikram, who is Mira? “Oh! I can’t ever name her. She exists, but is a very private person. And, I think, she likes it that way,” says Bhatt, whose relationship with actor Sushmita Sen was once the talk of the town. Is his book dedicated to his fictional character, Mira? “No, it just says… ‘To her’. It’s dedicated to all those who have had a broken heart and the strength to love again,” he elucidates.

“It isn’t autobiographical but a fictionalised version of some things I’ve gone through. A lot of it is fiction,” says the director of films such as 1920 (2008) and Creature 3D (2014).

Not one to mind bringing his personal life into public domain, Bhatt adds: “Nothing makes greater fiction than fact. After all, what’s the point of having a tragedy if it’s not entertaining enough?”

Is he still in touch with his real-life Mira? (long pause) “Yes, I am,” he admits and explains that it’s the nature of his profession that demands him to pen down his pain. “We artists are basically pain-sellers. We sell our pain because nothing makes [for a] better creative than pain. People wish entertainers pain so that their entertainment sparkles. There’s a nice saying in Hindi ki ‘Ujala failane ke liye diye ko apne sar mein aag lagani padti hai’. So, I think, there’s a bit of a masochist in all creative people.”

It is commendable that he’s able to dabble in both, the romantic and horror genres, with ease. “I make horror films because they give me money. I wrote this book because that’s who I am, intrinsically. I’m a sad sack (laughs) writing intense love stories.”

Mention his intriguing style of writing, and Bhatt refuses to tag the book “suspenseful”. “To me, it’s just emotional. Perhaps the best thing is, to not to say too much. Telling everything is boring and I hate boring the audience! You must be more impatient than the reader you are writing for,” he concludes.