As Vikram Bhatt's iconic horror-film Raaz turned twenty today, the filmmaker recalled how everyone had warned him not to work with 'flop hero' Dino Morea. He also revealed that before the release of Raaz, many people thought that the film is going to be a B-grade movie. However, Bhatt proved everyone wrong when Raaz arrived in theatres and took the entire nation by storm.
He told Hindustan Times, "Everybody thought that I was making a mistake. The horror films, which we watched before Raaz, took on the role of a B-grade movie, unfortunately. People thought we were making a similar film. There was a big producer who came to me and said, 'Kya yaar, tu flop hero aur Ajnabee (2001) ki vamp ke saath picture bana raha hai!'"
He also revealed that neither Dino Morea nor Bipasha Basu were the first choices for the film. He was supposed to make Raaz with Anil Kapoor and Lisa Ray, but things didn't work out with them. Bhatt revealed, "After working with Lisa in Kasoor (2001), she was the first choice for Raaz. But she had some personal issues because of which she couldn't do the film. We were left in a lurch after that as we didn't have a heroine. When Dino came in, he said, 'Why don't you try out my girlfriend, Bipasha? She's lovely!' But I hadn't heard her name."
He further revealed, when he met Bipasha for the first time and narrated the film to her, she fell off the sofa. That made him realise that she definitely is the heroine of Raaz.
"I thought that if in a narration, she can fall off a sofa, she's definitely the right fit for Sanjana," asserted Bhatt.
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