Small-time divas bet big on ghost stories

With pretty damsel Rashmi Gautam choosing a ghost movie 'Shivaranjani', being directed by Naaga Prabhakar, for which the trailer was released, it looks like small-time divas are betting big on ghost stories to stay in the reckoning.

Even Nandita Raj, after a series of flops, is hoping to return to the limelight with her upcoming horror movie 'Viswamithra' being directed by Raj Kiran, who made 'Geetanjali'.

Already, talented actress Anjali has 'Lissa' and 'Geetanjali 2' in the pipeline, to revive her sagging fortunes. "These actresses have limited choice to make it big.

With success of spooky films, they have joined the bandwagon. Nonetheless, the fate of these movies ride on novelty of the theme.

Sometimes, actresses in ghost stories are used to titillate the audience, while some films offer them scope to perform, so we have to wait and see," says director B Gopal.

On the other hand, A-listers like Tamannaah and Tapsee are returning with a ghost stories 'Devi 2' and 'Game Over' respectively to send shivers down the spine of the audience.

"Tapsee's 'Game Over' looks to be a gripping tale of a wheel-chair bound girl, who sets out to unravel a mystery shrouding her.

Whereas, Tammanah will be playing a Jekyll and Hyde kind of role where she portrays two contrasting shades-soft and fiery side.

For A-listers, it is just a different role, along with their usual stuff," says director V V Vinayak.

Earlier, it was Anushka (Bhagmathe), Nayantara (Mayuri and Dora) and Hansika (Chandrakala), who proved that ghost stories spin box office magic.

"These top actresses laid the path and now small-time actresses want to give a try to push their career upwards," says director Chandra Siddarth and adds "An actress playing a ghost is an attractive proposition for distributors.

Coz the transformation of a gorgeous diva into an ugly ghost is the USP of the film.

Above all, these horror films are mostly inspired by Korean and Thai movies, where mostly pretty women play the ghosts, so directors insist on taking glam girls,"

Whereas, producer C Kalyan, claims that filmmakers have the habit of following a trend and he doesn't blame the divas for rise in spooky movies.

"If one horror film clicks at the box office, filmmakers try to dish out more such movies, by signing actress available at that point of time, instead of waiting for the right casting," he says and adds "Earlier, horror movies were labelled B-grade stuff.

But Anushka and Nayan made it mainstream and happening."