One needs to be circumspect about any Ram Gopal Verma production. The last film was "Mr Ya Mrs" and before that "James", both of them disappeared without a trace. Ramu says he does not repeat his mistakes, though he might make new ones!
"Darna Zaroori Hai" is supposedly the sequel to "Darna Mana Hai", has the same format, a few short stories which have the same ending. The sequel was announced even before "Darna Mana Hai" was released, though it took almost two years for it to finally come out. Somehow sequels to films have not really worked in India, but Ram Gopal Verma is oblivious to that fact and says that he has never cared about what works and what does not. Just because a film does not work does not mean that he will change his style and convictions about film-making.
"Darna Zaroori Hai" has six short stories or "episodes", each of which has been directed by a different director. This is a first for Indian cinema. One of the episodes, the one which stars Amitabh Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh is directed by RGV himself. The star cast of the other "episodes" is very varied and interesting; it includes the reigning sex symbols Mallika Sherawat and Bipasha Basu. There were big stars in "Darna Mana Hai" as well, but its sequel boasts of even bigger stars! The star cast consists of Amitabh Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Rajpal Yadav, Suniel Shetty, Randeep Hooda, Zakir Hussain, Sonali Kulkarni, Arjun Rampal, Bipasha Basu, Anil Kapoor, Mallika Sherawat, and Makrand Deshpande - quite an impressive line-up. Almost a mix of the best that Bollywood has to offer.
One can safely say that Ram Gopal Verma reinvented the horror genre of Indian Cinema. Before "Raat" and "Bhoot" the horror we knew was the Ramsay Brothers variety, gross and vulgar. He made it sophisticated, brought in the now overused sound effects that made you jump off your seat. "Bhoot" was a slickly made urban supernatural thriller set in an everyday home setting of Mumbai city. What was scary about the film was that the ordinary movie-goer could relate to it and thus get the creeps when he went back home. This is what horror movies are supposed to do to you. Scarred faces, graveyards, blood and gore don't do it. "Darna Mana Hai" directed by Prawaal Raman introduced the concept of interweaving six different stories into the main plot; it had horror and suspense in varying doses. Like "Bhoot" it also had no songs, RGV has to be given the credit again for introducing this concept into mainstream commercial cinema. Indian films have long been unimaginable without songs; he has successfully tried to break the pattern.
Ram Gopal Verma is trying out working with big stars which he had not done earlier. He is known to have picked freshers and made names out of them; Manoj Bajpai, Urmila Matondkar, Antara Mali, Rajpal Yadav being some of them. He is now working with Amitabh and also Shah Rukh Khan. Very rightly, he says that he has no ideas about breaking the image of these big actors, instead he would exploit it. He has already done "Sarkar" with Amitabh; a sequel to "Sarkar" is in the offing and so is a film called "Nishabd". This is an unusual love story between a fifty year old man and an eighteen year old girl. With Shah Rukh Khan he is making a film called "Time Machine", Kareena Kapoor is playing the lead against SRK. Ramu has already announced a remake of "Sholay", he says he has seen the film 27 times and says that he owes his career to it. Sholay will star Amitabh Bachchan in the role of Gabbar Singh.
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