'13B will horrify you'

After playing a man affected by posttraumatic stress disorder in Mumbai Meri Jaan, R Madhavan is back with his next -- a bilingual in Hindi and Tamil -- titled 13B [Yaavarum Nalam in Tamil].
Directed by south Indian director Vikram K Kumar, the thriller also stars Neetu Chandra, Poonam Dhillon, Murli Sharma and Sachin Kedekar.

Nithya Ramani caught up with Madhavan for more on B13, his thoughts and experiences. Excerpts:

Where have you been? We rarely see you in Hindi films.

My last release in Hindi was Mumbai Meri Jaan, and Guru before that. So I have been maintaining my quota of one Hindi film a year. My south films kept me really busy for the past seven, eight years.

Of late, the Hindi film industry has opened up to new form of scripts, like Taare Zameen Par, Chak De India or a Black. So in terms of doing only one film a year, I might have been away from the Hindi film industry, but I can assure you that you will be seeing enough and more of me this year. I am doing almost five films.

What is 13B?

In today's world we are all so busy with our existence. Survival itself is a big challenge. After such a hectic day, when you get back home, you just want to shut yourself up and sleep. And we get very little time to interact with each other. People need to take a holiday just to talk to people.

So under these circumstances, the only relief and way of escapism is television. Everybody likes to keep a TV at home. I have seen housewives who like to keep the TV on just to feel like the house is full of kids. I have seen grandmothers put on the TV and go off to sleep. I have seen some of my friends who like to keep the TV on and then go to sleep. They have even named their TVs after their brothers or sisters or sons!

So the TV has moved up from just being a normal household appliance, to something that decides the power equation of the family. You can see who the boss of the house is by seeing who holds the remote control.

The whole story is what happens if the TV realises its power and shows you what it wants you to see rather than the facts. This is what happens with the character of this house. He suddenly realises that things are going out of this control because the TV somewhere has started playing havoc with his family. So it is a super natural thriller. I was really excited when I heard the story.

The best part of the film is there are no ghostly figures popping up, or any bloody images or murders or any gory or graphic images to frighten you. It doesn't have the "boo" factor. It'll just tell you a story and chill your spine. It will just make you feel unadulterated fear.

That is what I really liked about this movie. It is easy to spook or frighten you, but it is not easy to horrify you. And this film will horrify you. Till the interval, I promise, you cannot tell me what happens next and you will not be able to leave the theatre either. You will sit on the edge of your seat and wonder what is going to happen next.