Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship

About the film

Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship (transl. Ghost) is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language horror thriller film written and directed by Bhanu Pratap Singh and jointly produced by Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar, Apoorva Mehta, and Shashank Khaitan. The film features Vicky Kaushal in the lead role and is the first film of what was a planned horror film franchise.

According to Singh, who was a former assistant director to Khaitan, and Johar, Bhoot : Part One - The Haunted Ship is based on a true incident that took place in Mumbai, the famous MV Wisdom in 2011 and tells the story of an officer who has to move an abandoned but haunted ship lying static on Juhu Beach. Principal photography began in December 2018 and was wrap in September 2019.

Plot

Meera's third birthday is celebrated on the Sea-Bird by the ship's merchant crew. Drawn away from the party by a noise, Meera is attacked by a ghost and screams. Years later, shipping officer Prithvi Maurya (Vicky Kaushal), with the help of his friend and colleague Riaz, elopes with his pregnant girlfriend Sapna. Prithvi foils a human trafficking operation, but Riaz warns him against such dangerous adventures. Sapna gives birth to their daughter, Megha, and they are shown raising her.

Some time later, Prithvi is living alone. He and Riaz investigate the Sea-Bird, which was mysteriously found abandoned at an unmanned port, and recover its logbook. A couple is shown on a romantic adventure on the ship before being killed by a ghost. The body of a girl is found buried on the beach. Prithvi and Riaz attempt to tow the Sea-Bird away for disposal, but their salvage ship is damaged. Prithvi is injured while saving a drowning man and sees a girl through a hole in the ship.

While recovering, Prithvi hallucinates the ship, as well as Sapna and Megha. In a flashback, it is revealed that they drowned because of improper safety equipment on a river-rafting holiday he had planned. Disturbed, he consults Professor Joshi (Ashutosh Rana), who is researching the afterlife and has hallucinations of his own dead wife and daughter. Prithvi returns to the ship and finds a video camera in the engine room; the ghost attacks him, but he is saved by Riaz.

Production

In January 2018, it was reported that Kaushal and Pednekar had signed a horror film produced by Karan Johar. Filming began in December 2018, with Kaushal, while Pednekar filmed her portions in late January 2019. Kaushal fractured his cheekbone while shooting for an action sequence in Gujarat. A door fell on him which resulted in him getting 13 stitches. The shooting of the film ended on 3 September 2019 according to a post on Kaushal's Instagram account.

Release

The film was initially set for release on 15 November 2019, but this was delayed until 21 February 2020.

Soundtrack

The film has only one song, composed and written by Akhil Sachdeva.

Reception

Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship earned ₹5.10 crore (51 million rupees) net at the domestic box office on its opening day. On the second day, the film collected ₹5.52 crore. On the third day, the film collected ₹5.74 crores taking the total opening weekend collection to ₹16.36 crores (163.6 million rupees).

The film grossed ₹38.06 crore in India and ₹2.88 crore overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of ₹40.94 crore (409.4 million rupees).

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 0% of 11 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.3/10.

Key details