Vikram Vedha: Pushkar- Gayatri on how Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan starrer draws from Vikram Betaal folklore

Vikram Vedha is counting down the days until it hits the silver screen this month. The film is the Hindi remake of the 2017 Tamil film of the same name. Directorial duo Pushkar- Gayatri, who helmed the original film, returned to the director’s chair for the Bollywood remake as well. The filmmakers recently opened up about how the crime thriller was inspired from the folklore of Vikram Betaal.

For the uninitiated, the story of Vikram Betaal revolved around the tale of a king, Vikram, who is tasked with capturing a Betal, a paranormal entity. For him to successfully capture the entity, Vikram must remain silent. But everytime Vikram catches the Betal, the latter starts to enchant the king with a story with a question at its end. The king answers the question each time, allowing the entity to escape.

Pushkar- Gayatri spoke of how they had grown up listening to the tales of Vikram Betaal. The stories had gotten the duo thinking, and they had many takeaways from each story they heard. Talking about how fascinated they were by the stories, the filmmakers said that they had tried to adapt the inherent nostalgia of the folklore into the film. “The treatment of the film draws references from these legends, where every time the two characters face-off, they are at a crossroad of a puzzling situation. In the film, Vikram & Vedha are their own beings, and the premise is set against the action-thriller backdrop”, they said.

The upcoming film stars Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan as Vikram and Vedha respectively. Radhika Apte, Sharib Hashmi, Yogita Bihani, Satyadeep Mishra and Rohit Saraf also feature in pivotal roles in the film.

Vikram Vedha will be released in theatres on September 30. The film is presented by Gulshan Kumar, T-Series and Reliance Entertainment in association with Friday Filmworks and Jio Studios and a YNOT Studios Production. T