Vikram Bhatt

Biography

Vikram Bhatt is an Indian director, screenwriter, and producer who primarily works in the Bollywood film industry. He belongs to a family that has contributed to the Indian film industry since its founding days. 

Vikram made his directorial debut with the 1992 movie Janam and has since then delivered several successful movies including Ghulam (1998) and Raaz (2002).

Vikram married his childhood sweetheart Aditi and the couple has a daughter, Krishna Bhatt, who also assists him on the sets. However, the couple got separated and while Vikram was still going through the process of divorce, he had an extramarital affair with the actress Sushmita Sen. His affair with Sushmita was short-lived and he then dated the actress Ameesha Patel for five years.

Vikram started his career at the early age of 14, assisting Mukul Anand on his directorial debut, Kanoon Kya Karega. He later went on to assist Anand on the Amitabh Bachchan starrer Agneepath (1990), which bombed at the box office at the time of its release but went on to become a cult classic.

Vikram`s early days in the industry helped him immensely as he got to work with industry stalwarts such as Shekhar Kapur and Mahesh Bhatt. He also worked as an assistant director on the sets of several popular movies such as Junoon (1992), and Hum Hai Rahi Pyar Ke (1993). However, Vikram`s Bollywood career began with a series of unsuccessful movies.

The director made his debut with the Rahul Roy and Pooja Bhatt starrer Janam released in 1992. The movie, which is a remake of the cult classic Bobby (1973) directed by Raj Kapoor, bombed at the box office. 

In the next three years, Vikram directed two movies - Madhosh (1994) and Gunhegar (1995) - both of these movies were box office failures and it was only in 1996 that the director finally found success with the thriller Fareb. The movie made at a meager budget was a surprise hit and gave a much-needed boost to Vikram`s career.
 

In 2008, Vikram`s long run of flops came to an end with the horror movie 1920 which marked the Bollywood debut of Rajneesh Duggal and Adah Sharma. Vikram later also released a sequel to the movie in 2012 titled 1920: Evil Returns which received moderate success. Continuing with the horror genre he next directed Shaapit and Haunted - 3D.

 The latter went on to become one of the highest-grossing Bollywood horror films at the time of its release. The movie also marked the introduction of `stereoscopic 3D` in Indian cinema.

In 2012, Vikram directed the third installment in the Raaz series titled Raaz 3D, starring Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta, and Emraan Hashmi. The movie did exceptionally well at the box office, however, after the success of Raaz 3D, Vikram`s next three movies - Creature 3D (2014), Mr. X (2015), and Love Games (2016) - bombed at the box office.

 His other 2016 release includes the fourth installment to the Raaz series, Raaz Reboot starring Emraan Hashmi and Kriti Kharbanda. His 2020 release includes Hacked.

Apart from directing movies, Vikram has also contributed to many movies as a writer. He made his writing debut with the movie Dastak (1996) and has written movies such as Ankahee (2006), Hate Story (2012), Ankur Arora Murder Case (2013), Khamoshiyan (2015), and 1920 London (2016).

Virkam has produced movies such as 1920 (2008), Lanka (2011), Hate Story (2012), Ankur Arora Murder Case (2013), Bhag Johnny (2014) and Hate Story 3 (2015).