| Ek Thi Daayan | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Kannan Iyer |
| Written by | Mukul Sharma Vishal Bhardwaj |
| Based on | Mobius Trips by Mukul Sharma |
| Produced by | Ekta Kapoor Shobha Kapoor Vishal Bhardwaj Rekha Bhardwaj |
| Starring | Emraan Hashmi Huma Qureshi Konkona Sen Sharma Kalki Koechlin |
| Cinematography | Saurabh Goswami |
| Edited by | A. Sreekar Prasad |
| Music by | Songs: Vishal Bhardwaj Score: Clinton Cerejo |
Production companies | ALT Entertainment VB Pictures |
| Distributed by | Balaji Motion Pictures |
Release date |
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| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹24–26 crore[1][2] |
| Box office | ₹40.25 crore[2] |
Ek Thi Daayan (Once there was aDayan (witch)) is a 2013 IndianHindi-languagesupernaturalhorror thriller film directed byKannan Iyer, adapted from the short storyMobius Trips byMukul Sharma.[3] The film starsEmraan Hashmi,Huma Qureshi,Konkona Sen Sharma andKalki Koechlin.[4] The film is co-produced byEkta Kapoor,Shobha Kapoor,Vishal Bhardwaj andRekha Bhardwaj. It was released on 19 April 2013 to positive reviews from critics and decent box-office collections.[5]
Konkona Sen Sharma received critical acclaim for her performance and was nominated forBest Supporting Actress at the59th Filmfare Awards.[6]
Bejoy "Bobo" Charan Mathur is India's top magician, but, unknown to everyone, his life is falling apart. Hallucinations about his dead little sister, Misha, threaten his sanity. One day, he gets drawn to his old and vacant family apartment, where he opens the lid of a treasure chest, only to see a vision of Misha dead inside. He finally seeks psychiatric help from the odd Dr. Palit, who puts him under regressionhypnosis to go back to the past, when Bobo was 11 and Misha was 6.
It is revealed that Bobo and Misha lived with their single father in their apartment. One day, Bobo reads a book about witchcraft, where he discovers the number 666 and uses it to travel on the elevator to an unlisted floor at the bottom of the building, which he tells Misha is the entrance to hell. According to Bobo, each building has its own hell, where the "bad people" of the building are consigned for eternity once they are dead. One day, a woman named Diana moves into their building, and Bobo is convinced that she is adaayan who surfaced following his and Misha's trip on the elevator.
Diana charms Bobo's father and marries him. Bobo then learns that a daayan's source of power is her plait. On Diana's birthday, during the night of the red moon, she sacrifices Misha to restore her dark powers. Bobo and his father discover Misha'scorpse inside the trunk and a now-undisguised Diana hovering over her body. Diana kills Bobo's father with her ear-piercing screams. As she performs the rest of her ritual, the distraught Bobo finds his father's dagger and cuts off Diana's plait, destroying her source of power. Diana begins to crumble into dust, but she tells him that she will return.
Dr. Palit dismisses Bobo's visions as fantasy. Bobo and Tamara marry and adopt ten-year-old Zubin. Everything goes well until the irresistible Lisa Dutt enters their lives during a magic show. Everyone loves her, but Bobo suspects that the witch is back in the form of Lisa. Lisa buys Bobo's old apartment, adding to his suspicion. During Lisa's housewarming party, Tamara falls off the balcony and is hospitalized. Lisa visits her, but Bobo walks in and angrily tells her to get out when he finds her tinkering with the IV bag. Afraid for his family, he calls Dr. Palit for help.
Dr. Palit finds out something disturbing and calls Bobo, but the witch appears as Diana and kills him. Bobo finds Dr. Palit dead and sees a paper in his hand, on which Zubin's name is written. He looks for Zubin everywhere but finds him missing. He then rushes back to the old apartment and takes the elevator to hell.
There, he finds Zubin lying on an altar and the witch ready to sacrifice his son's life to sustain her powers. Bobo tries to save Zubin but encounters Tamara. In a twist, it is revealed that Tamara is the witch, not Lisa. Diana appears and tells him that he is aPishacha, because no average person who pushes a button in an elevator finds hell. Tamara tells him that it took her twenty years to be reborn and she will not let him kill her again, and she knocks him unconscious.
Bobo wakes up and remembers the book where he read that a Pishacha can regain his strength on the night of a red moon, and today is the night of the red moon. With his newly acquired powers, he kills Tamara and returns his powers toSatan. The witch, now in the form of Diana, reveals that only an innocent person can kill a witch, and since Bobo killed her once before, he is no longer innocent. The two fight again until Bobo kicks the sacrificial dagger at Zubin. Zubin then manages to cut off Diana's plait, but the crumbling witch promises that she will return again.
In the end, Bobo meets Lisa, and she asks him why he was so aggressive towards her in the beginning. Bobo tells her that he thought she was a witch.
InitiallyRani Mukerji was approached to portray the role of Liza.[7]
The film was shot atFilmcity. According to director Kannan Iyer, leopards entered the sets during shooting. The uninvited guest was later apparently shooed away.[8]
CGI VFX for the film has been done by “Prana Studios””Mumbai.
The unique marketing campaign was carried out by the producerEkta Kapoor for the promotion of this film. She produced a mini-series aired on the channelLife OK titledEk Thhi Naayka starring the top actress ofIndian Television from her path-breaking shows, includingSmriti Irani,Sakshi Tanwar,Shweta Tiwari,Aamna Shariff,Mouli Ganguly,Ankita Lokhande,Kritika Kamra andPooja Gaur.[9]
| Ek Thi Daayan | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 2013 | |||
| Recorded | 2013 | |||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 26:59 | |||
| Language | Hindi | |||
| Label | Sony Music India | |||
| Producer | Vishal Bhardwaj | |||
| Vishal Bhardwaj chronology | ||||
| ||||
The music ofEk Thi Daayan was composed byVishal Bhardwaj, with lyrics written byGulzar.[10] The background score was composed byClinton Cerejo. Musicperk.com rated the album 7/10 quoting "This album does impress in parts but fails to make a lasting impression."[11]
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Yaaram" | Sunidhi Chauhan,Clinton Cerejo | 4:53 |
| 2. | "Totey Ud Gaye" | Suresh Wadkar,Sukhwinder Singh,Rekha Bhardwaj | 3:55 |
| 3. | "Kaali Kaali" | Clinton Cerejo | 6:00 |
| 4. | "Lautungi Main" | Rekha Bhardwaj | 6:18 |
| 5. | "Sapna Re Sapna" | Padmanabh Gaikwad | 5:53 |
| Total length: | 26:59 | ||
The film received a mainly positive response with praise particularly forKonkona Sen Sharma, as well asHuma Qureshi andKalki Koechlin. On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 80% of 5 critics' reviews are positive.[12]Taran Adarsh ofBollywood Hungama gaveEk Thi Daayan 4.3 stars out of 5 and called it "An imaginative and appealing supernatural thriller".[13] Meena Iyer ofThe Times of India awarded it 3.5 out of 5 while remarking "Woven beautifully between the world of magic, occult and suspense, Ek Thi Daayan, makes for compulsive viewing, providing some spine-chilling thrills at short gaps".[14] Raja Sen ofRediff gave it 3 out of 5 star, noting,"Ek Thi Daayan isn't the scariest of horror films. It is, though, smartly crafted, highly original in its approach and a strikingly ambitious effort for the genre".[15]
Ek Thi Daayan opened at around 30-40% occupancy with better opening in multiplexes rather than single screens[16] where it collected around₹6.24 crore (US$740,000) on its first day.[17] The film did not show any growth further and netted around₹15.5 crore (US$1.8 million) over the weekend.[18] Despite low growth over the weekend, the film came out with good total of around₹ 25 crore in its first week.[19]Ek Thi Daayan grossed over₹40.25 crore (US$4.8 million) during its entire theatrical run.[2]
