Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt has said that in the 2000s, as his films began to bomb at the box office, even his crew members doubted his ability to make decent films. In a recent interview, the director opened up about the time he made the horror film 1920 and how he stuck to his guts despite the doubts. ()

After delivering a blockbuster in Raaz in 2002, Vikram Bhatt had a series of box office disasters, with his next 13 films failing at the box office. “After a couple of hit films, I had a series of flops and in the industry, there is a rule: ‘if you have a couple of bad Fridays then people stop taking your calls’. I was helpless. At that time, I had a subject called 1920. I decided to direct it,” the filmmaker told Bharti Singh and Haarsh Limbachiya on their YouTube channel.

However, his struggles did not end with 1920 as the production was difficult. He added, “I struggled a lot to make that film. I had nobody to buy it from me. Nobody believed in me. The situation was so bad that even my lightman was like: ‘Sir, yeh kaisi film hai? (What kind of film is this?)’ I said, ‘This is what is going to work’. After completing production, I had around 35 trials of the film, but nobody bought it from me. I knocked on the doors of every studio and producer, but nobody showed any interest. Everybody had their own opinions and reasons. Eventually, I only released the film. The release day was filled with stress and the environment was stressed.”

1920 starred Adah Sharma and Rajneesh Duggal in the lead roles. The low budget horror film made ₹14 crore at the box office and was successful enough to spawn a franchise. Vikram Bhatt gave further hits with films like Haunted 3D and Raaz 3. His last few films, however, have nor worked at the box office.