The success of Haunted 3D has put filmmaker Vikram Bhatt in the spotlight. And to think this time last year, the only thing associated with him was a long string of flops, broken perhaps just once when 1920, another horror film, did fairly well.

Vikram is at his best when he makes reasonably budgeted films with him at the helm and no stars to fuss over. This is something he has in common with the Bhatt brothers, Mahesh and Mukesh, apart from a surname. And no, for the umpteenth time, they are not family although, even after decades of all of them being around, people still tend to think that Vikram is related to Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt. More than the surname and the fact that Vikram once directed films like Raaz for the Bhatt brothers, the perception is perhaps because all of them speak passionately and well, and are given to a stark candour uncommon in our movie industry.

Even their personal equations are worn on the sleeve. For instance, before his daughter Pooja Bhatt got married and settled down, Mahesh Bhatt didn’t blink once about her affairs. As far as all the Bhatts are concerned, what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Vikram falls into this mould. He may have walked out of the Bhatt camp years ago because better fees beckoned from outside, but their influence on him was unmistakable. Whether it was his celebrated affair with Sushmita Sen or his subsequent divorce from Aditi, the mother of his 16-year-old daughter Krishna, everything was well-chronicled like Mahesh Bhatt’s colourful life. There were no secrets and, like Mahesh did with autobiographical films like Arth and Janam, Vikram too, unhesitatingly put his personal life on celluloid when he made Ankahee with Esha Deol playing a neurotic actress and Ameesha Patel, the wife. It was like purging the guilt out of his system.

That was the first step he took towards building bridges with his estranged past. Krishna is thrilled today because dad is taking her to America for a holiday. That’s his personal treat for her to celebrate Haunted 3D, apart from taking her out to dinner at her favourite Italian restaurant in Mumbai.

Lately, Vikram has also brought his school-going daughter into his work sphere. She is an active part of his filmmaking life and she even did a one-scene role playing the piano in Haunted 3D. Vikram proudly recalls that when Krishna first stepped into his office two years ago and he overheard her narrate his script to somebody, she established her DNA without a doubt.

All this sounds very much like the two Bhatt brothers. But where Vikram was different was when he announced that he would be playing the lead role in his next film, an erotic thriller in 3D called Dangerous Ishq. We know that Vikram has an impressive voice which he modulates well and that he dubbed for Aftab Shivdasani in Kasoor, Rajneesh Duggal in 1920 and Mahaakshay in Haunted 3D. But acting? Did we have a director-turned-actor like Farhan Akhtar out here?

Mercifully, that idea has been shelved.

“I’m not acting in any film,” Vikram recently said. “It was just a discussion on a film but you know how it all gets out these days.”

Oh, so no erotic thriller with steamy scenes?

He laughed, “I was not the one doing the steamy scenes anyway.” And then he came up with a gem as an explanation: “First of all, you spend the money as the producer, then you make the film as the director and then you don’t do the steamy scenes. So I said, to hell with it!”

He added more wit: “To have to diet, go to the gym, it was not worth it. I thought I might as well hire an actor.”

Krishna, 16, exhaled with relief. “It would have been embarrassing if dad had done steamy scenes!”

Krishna can relax. Vikram Bhatt will remain strictly behind the camera as his next is a thriller for his own production company and he will be back to making another Raaz for Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt. For Vikram, returning to the Bhatt camp is one more step towards shaking hands with an uneasy past.

Hey, psst! Saw a long and absorbing promo of Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan. With Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Bajpai, Prateik and Saif Ali Khan playing the main characters in a punchy tale on our reservation policy, this one’s going to be a step ahead of Raajneeti. Honestly, much as I love Ajay Devgn as an actor, I didn’t miss him at all in Aarakshan. In fact, he would have been predictable as a Dalit, while nawabi Saif is unconventionally comfortable in the skin of a downtrodden underdog. Devgn was perceptive in stepping out of a role he’s done umpteen times before; Jha was sharp in casting an unsafe Saif in his place. And before anybody else can tell you this, there will be a Raajneeti 2 for sure, like the Godfather series.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is editor, The Film Street Journal