Everyone has done well in Phoonk 2: Milind

Yet another debutant director gets ready for the release of his big screen dream today. Milind Gadagkar, a 30-something young man, who had written Phoonk, is having some nervous moments as his debut directorial effort plays on screens starting today. Though the first in the series was directed by Ram Gopal Varma, when Milind came with the idea of Phoonk 2, he was given a free hand to also direct it. Milind put things together entirely by wrapping up the principal shooting in a record time (37 days) by bringing the original cast (Sudeep, Amruta Khanvilkar, Ashwini Kalsekar, Ahsaas Channa) together.

You have repeated the original actors in the sequel to Phoonk. Didn't it get monotonous for the actors to recreate the same emotions all over again?
No, not at all. On the contrary, one thing which is really going to stand out in Phoonk 2 is performances. For films belonging to horror genre, performances are extremely important. People think ki chalo bhoot aayega aur daraega isliye baaki actors ke liye itna mushkil nahi hai. However, to get the overall fear effect in place, it is most important that everyone performs very well. Otherwise the film would fall flat. The right emotions have to come out and that's something which I have been able to achieve. For example, in Bhoot, if Urmila wouldn"t have performed then the film wouldn't have worked. Similarly in Phoonk 2 as well, everyone from Sudeep, Amruta to Ehsaas have done really well.

Even though Amruta hasn't done too many films after Phoonk, you still trusted her to deliver goods?
Amruta has impressed me like anything as she has carried her character graph brilliantly. Sudeep is a kind of person to whom you don't have to give much brief. At her age, Ehsaas has delivered the kind of performance which is just superb. She has far exceeded her performance in Phoonk. In fact an additional character of Sudeep's sister, which is played by Neeru, has been added.

Talking about Neeru, last week she was one of the leading ladies of Vivek Oberoi in Prince and this week she is playing the role of a sister of the male protagonist. Isn't that a step down for her?
I don't think it works that way. When the audience sees a film, they see it in the context of the story being told. They start looking at characters and not actors. I too have extracted performances as demanded from the character. I didn't think whether Neeru should be looked as a leading lady or a sister.