Roohi director Hardik Mehta on abduction scene: To subvert a notion, you have to portray it

Rajkummar Rao and Janhvi Kapoor in Roohi

When the theatre shutdown was announced in March 2020, Hardik Mehta's debut offering Kaamyab and Dinesh Vijan's Angrezi Medium had only opened on the big screens. It's thus deeply poetic that Roohi, directed by Mehta and produced by Vijan, is slated to be the first big-ticket project to hit the marquee since theatres opened to full capacity last month. "It's the universe's sign that we have moved past the turmoil of last year," begins the director of the Rajkummar Rao, Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Sharma-led horror comedy. After Kaamyab, Mehta steers into a unique genre with Roohi. "When we started working on Roohi, the gratitude of the opportunity was so much more than the pinch of the pressure. For me, Roohi was a blank slate, and I wanted this film to have an identity independent of Stree [2018]. Now that we are promoting the film, there is a pressure to live up to the legacy of Stree's universe."

The front-footed humour of Roohi is a sharp contrast to Stree that took the satirical route from the get-go. "I have grown up on comedies that would air every afternoon on Zee Cinema and SET Max - Andaz Apna Apna [1994], Deewana Mastana [1997] and Haseena Maan Jaayegi [1999]. Roohi has some in-your-face humour, but that doesn't mean that we haven't added layers to the comedy scenes. A lot of the humour lies in the banter between Bhanwra and Kattani [Rao and Sharma]."

Hardik Mehta

The story narrates the folklore of a witch who possesses the bride after the groom falls asleep. Twitterati pointed out that the trailer attempts to evoke laughs with an abduction scene. Ask Mehta if he is being responsible in his depiction of comedy, and he says, "To subvert a notion, you have to portray it. I debated the scene when I first read the script. I see the risk of the scene, but I am also aware of its repercussions on the characters as the film progresses. I don't want people to judge the film basis the trailer. Put in the two hours, and then judge us. We have woven in the right boundaries and messaging in the narrative. We aren't irresponsible as makers."