India’s Vishal Furia Explores Social Issues With Horror Films

After proving his prowess with the critically acclaimed films Lappachappi, Chhorii and Chhorii 2, Indian filmmaker Vishal Furia has now come up with Maa. An Ajay Devgn production, Maa features Kajol in the titular role and is set to hit theatres on June 27. This will be Furia’s first ever Hindi theatrical release. In an exclusive interview, the director shares his views on exploring social issues, especially those affecting the womenfolk in his country, through the populist genre of horror films.

Maa, Chhorii 2 and more: Indian filmmaker Vishal Furia interview

Furia, a self-confessed fan of Tim Burton, M Night Shyamalan and Takashi Miike, began his journey with the Marathi horror film Lapachhapi which he remade in Hindi for Prime Video as Chhorii.

His new Hindi film, Maa, appears to be pegged on human trafficking and comes from the producers of Shaitaan – the Ajay Devgn-R Madhavan starrer horror film that impressed box office last year. Maa features Ronit Roy and Indraneil Sengupta along with Kajol.

Vishal Furia on Kajol-starrer Maa

Furia says Maa was an interesting film when it was offered to him and Kajol was already set to play the lead in the Devgn’s production. “Ajay Devgn offered me that film. They were developing it in their studio with Kajol already in place. It is a great addition to my trajectory as a horror filmmaker. I was more than grateful and happy to pick it up. Devgn has mentored us throughout the film.”

He adds, “No, no. Maa is not my story. Saiwyn Quadras has written it. I was just happy to do it. I was happy I got to work with these two big legends – Kajol the wonderful actor and Ajay Devgn the distinguished producer. He is a visionary producer, and it was great working on that film.”

Maa: Social Messages and preaching in films

Furia’s films are all about social issues and messages about dealing with them. However, they are never preachy. Is that a conscious effort he needs to make every time? “Yeah, I don’t think preachy films have a very strong impact. I feel the message becomes stronger when it comes through a story being told, not just preaching about the message. I prefer to tell a story. I prefer that the audience put themselves in the shoes of the characters of the film and start living the story. I want them to understand what the character is going through. I like hitting the message sometime later, and slowly.”

Furia’s filmography traces the life of a woman – his first (Marathi original and Hindi remake) highlighted the horrors of female infanticide while the second one (Chhorii 2) underlined the aftermath of child marriage. The promotional videos of Maa suggest that his third one may be about child trafficking.

The Evolution of Horror Films in Hindi Cinema
Since the release of Stree in 2018, India has seen a surge in Hindi horror films which highlight social evils. Furia’s Marathi film, Lappachappi came a year earlier. “A huge number of audiences went to the theatres to watch that film. I believe the audience wants to watch good horror films that also make a difference to the society, but we failed to give them the right product.”

He adds that horror “took a little dip because of the kind of template and mold that it was made in”. Referring to horror erotica that was the popular genre in 2000s Indian films, the filmmakers adds that Indian horror films became “not very friendly for everyone to watch”. “It became a bit of a degraded genre. It lost its respect on the way somewhere and it was considered shallow because of that. People stopped watching Indian horror films. But they were watching horror from everywhere else in the world. We are back on the path of telling Indian stories, with respect and dignity while saying something even more. Now, I think we have come on track with that. I think now all sub-genres of horror will thrive going ahead.”

Vishal Furia on Chhorii, sequel

Furia insists that the Chhorii franchise is not just horror but goes beyond the thrills of a horror film. It was an organic growth of the first story from childbirth (Chhorii) to the second one about a slightly grown-up child and child marriage (Chhorii 2).

Furia laments how unfortunate it is for such social evils to still exist. “Child infanticide, child marriage. Things that should not exist, unfortunately they still do. It organically went into a second part. My challenge was to make the sequel scarier, and darker. The world we created helped us in doing so. More the claustrophobic spaces, complex spaces and characters the more amplified is the horror.”

Maa – Horror and beyond: Furia plans to explore beyond horror

Confirming that he has thoughts on more sequels to Chhorii franchise, Furia says, “Unfortunately, the society is not very good with women, the way they treat women. There are so many issues that need to be talked about. I am angry, even as a male, and this is my way of showing my anger. I think it (Chhorii) is not over yet.”

“I am genre agnostic. Always something that I offered to the industry to start my career. I thought horror was quite under-serviced and it was a genre I really loved. Now, a lot of horror scripts come to me. Having said that, I am a filmmaker at heart. I want to tell good stories irrespective of the genre. I will continue crime thrillers. I am working on a comedy.”