'SHAITAAN'S SUCCESS MADE ME DO VASH LEVEL 2'

Krishnadev Yagnik discusses his Gujarati horror film, Vash Level 2, what he thinks of the changed ending of Shaitaan, and why he didn't expect Vash to win the National Film Award

- SHREYAS PANDE

When Ajay Devgn's supernatural-horror thriller, Shaitaan, came out last year, the Hindi film industry was in search of the next big spectacle. Action and horror were believed to be the crowd-pullers in the changed dynamics of a post-pandemic world. The effect of such a belief was visible in Shaitaan, which employed loud, shock-value scenes to create terror rather than rhythmically creating tension through the atmosphere. The method seemed to work well for the film as it gained numbers at the box office. In fact, it was the success of Shaitaan that then pushed the makers of the original Gujarati film, Vash (2023), to think of a sequel. "If Shaitaan hadn't done well, I wouldn't have thought of making Vash Level 2," says director Krishnadev Yagnik.