'I don't watch horror films, so I don't know how I ended up being in the film.'
Katrina Kaif reveals that the team behind her upcoming film Phone Bhoot received a pat on their backs from her actor-husband Vicky Kaushal who loved the movie's trailer.
She features in the horror comedy alongside actors Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter. It is directed by Gurmmeet Singh of Mirzapur fame and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani's banner Excel Entertainment.
"Vicky absolutely loved the trailer. He had such a good reaction and that gave us even more confidence and happiness. He feels the film is fun and people are going to connect to it," Kat says.
"I think right now people want to come (to cinemas) and have a good time, watch something funny, and enjoy themselves. That's all we are hoping this film will do," she adds.
Written by Ravi Shankaran and Jasvinder Singh Bath, Phone Bhoot features Katrona as a ghost with Siddhant and Ishaan playing a ghostbuster duo.
"I don't watch horror films at all, so I don't know how I ended up being in the film," confesses Katrina
Katrina says she found Ishaan and Siddhant's enthusiasm for cinema at par with the three Khans of Hindi film industry, Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir.
"The similarity is that the enthusiasm and love for cinema is the same. They (Ishaan and Siddhant) are very smart and bright. What I love about them is they are spontaneous and good at improvisation. For me, that was required in a film like this because when you are in a scene, you have to see what's working and not just go by the script," she says.
Phone Bhoot is Siddhant's second release of 2022 after the critically acclaimed Gehraiyaan.
The actor said his intention is to pick diverse roles and films: "It is a conscious effort to do different characters because I will get bored doing the same thing. If I had to do the same kind of work, then I would have done CA (chartered accountancy).
"I wanted to explore different things. Hence, the previous movie was different and this is a comedy, in which people have not seen me much. I want to surprise everyone," he adds.
Ishaan considers Phone Bhoot a 'buddy film'.
"Every film has a world and you need to get into every character. But for this film, it was required that we have that banter (between us) and we have tried to have fun with it," he says.
"The exciting thing is Siddhant and I were able to do a buddy film. We have grown up watching films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Andaz Apna Apna and it is a buddy film inside a horror comedy. I was excited to explore this genre," he adds.
Producer Farhan Akhtar called Phone Bhoot a 'comedy of horrors'.
According to him, there was no harm in exploring the horror comedy genre despite the success of movies like Stree, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and the failure of films like Roohi, Bhoot Police.
"The story has to be good and entertaining. Every kind of film is being made often, like love stories, action, dramas and revenge dramas. This is also a genre, we just have to make sure the story is not the same," Farhan adds.
Which celebrity would Katrina like to haunt?
"I would want to haunt Priyanka Chopra for a day to understand how she manages to work as much as she does, fly here, fly there," she says.
Phone Bhoot opens in theatres on November 4.
