The 'real' stories behind the plots of Ramsay horror films
Alisha Kirpalani with her mother Asha
Keshu Ramsay, Aamir Khan and Asha
What drew the Ramsays to the horror genre?
They started with historicals. And then they made a film called Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi (1970), which did alright. But what they noticed in the film was a scene where Prithviraj Kapoor wore a mask and the audiences were visibly scared. My uncles were smart enough to gauge that there could be a potential in tapping into this genre, and suggested this to my grandfather. While they were toying with this idea, my mother told my grandfather a story he really liked and turned it into a film called Do Ghaz Zameen Ke Niche (1972). Growing up, we were mostly in splits because we always had some prop or the other at home. One day, for instance, my aunt had come over and wanted to drink water. When she opened the fridge, she saw a human head and screamed aloud. It was a prop for a film, a mask that had come from abroad. On the occasion of Rakshabandhan, the brothers would line up on the sets to be tied rakhis by my mother and after the celebrations, they would have to feed sweets to the crew members, including the guy who was in the ghost’s attire. It was all in a day’s work for the Ramsays (laughs).