India's first horror comedy came years before Stree, Bhediya, Bhool Bhulaiyaa; had no hero, Akshay Kumar borrowed its...

This weekend, Akshay Kumar thrilled his fans with a new announcement of a film on his birthday. More than the film itself, fans were happy about the genre and the director. The film is titled Bhooth Bangla and marks Akshay’s reunion with Priyadarshan after 14 years. But even as Akshay fans cheered on, many film buffs noted that the film’s title was sort of an ode to the sleeper hit that started the genre of horror comedies and that too, half a century before Akshay Kumar did it.

India’s original horror comedy

Released in 1965, Bhoot Bungla is considered one of the earliest horror comedies in south Asian cinema. The film was co-written by comedian Mehmood and Ranjan Bose. Mehmood directed it as well and starred as the lead too, alongside Tanuja and Nazir Hussain. The film’s plot borrowed elements from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of Baskerville but was a new story in itself. The amalgamation of horror and laughs that Mehmood brought with it was new for the Indian audiences. The film was a surprise success at the box office, cementing Mehmood’s position as a director and viable star as well.

How Bhoot Bangla stood alone for decades

The success of Bhoot Bangla was a one-off for Hindi cinema. There were not many horror comedies that followed. In fact, the entire genre of horror was a subterranean one populated by low-budget semi-sleazy films from the likes of the Ramsay Brothers. It wasn’t until the 2000s that filmmakers from the south – particularly Priyadarshan – brought it back to Bollywood. Such films had been successful in Malayalam and Tamil in the 90s and Hindi cinema lapped it up too with the success of Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Then in 2018, Amar Kaushik and Maddock Pictures started the horror comedy universe with Stree, and Bhediya and Munjya followed suit. Now, things are set to go a full circle in 2025 as Akshay Kumar and Priyadarshan will again bring a film titled Bhooth Bangla to the genre.

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