Ever since he started doing the promotional rounds of his Friday’s release 13B, Madhavan has been inundated with comparisons of his ’supernatural flick’ 13B [the way cast and crew want to put the film as] with Ram Gopal Varma’s BHOOT. Though the only common factors about the two films is that both are about an urban couple living in an apartment, Madhavan insists that it hardly makes sense to debate around the storyline, plot and the narrative of 13B and BHOOT since there is nothing similar between them.

What exactly is 13B? A sci-fi film, a supernatural thriller, mythical, horror?

Neither is there any mythical element to the story of 13B nor does the film belongs to horror genre. Yes, there is a supernatural element involved in the storyline but then again, we are not talking about ghostly faces, ugly eyes or faces popping out from cupboards. Also, you won’t see any sudden sound or music in the dark. It is a simple thriller told in a simple manner but something that will certainly keep you shocked and glued.

One hears that TV plays an important character in the film. In fact it has been almost hailed as the hero of the film. Please elaborate.

See, off late, we have started watching TV in a completely different manner. We as an audience too have changed over a period of time. We started off with watching happy serials a decade or so back, then we moved on to ’saas bhi kabhi bahu thi’ kind of stuff and now is the time when reality show have taken over our lives. Even in such shows, we like to see negativity. Whenever something horrible happens to a participant, the TRPs go up.

Think of a horror film set in urban India and a successful BHOOT [Ajay Devgan, Urmila Matondkar] comes to mind. How similar or dissimilar are the two films? Also, won’t there be a comparison built between the two films?

Honestly speaking, worrying about similarities or dissimilarities with BHOOT was never a part of the challenge. The idea was to tell an interesting story; something that hasn’t being shown ever in either Bollywood or even Hollywood. The basic premise of the movie itself is so different, so unique. So there is no point comparing the two films.

You seem quite confident about the film.

Yes, I am. I can guarantee that you will not be able to leave theater in the interval because you will be busy guessing what will happen next and what was the reason behind all that has happened so far. It’s a challenge to you that you won’t be able to predict during the interval point that how will the film’s story culminate.

How about the technical aspects of the film?

I know for sure that apart from it being a wonderfully scripted film, technically too it is a very superior film. We have some of the best technicians like Samir Chanda for art direction, PC Sriram for cinematography, Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy for music. Then there are some new kids (Tubby, Parik) who have done the background score. All of them have got together not with the intent of frightening you but only to instill the fear that is intrinsically present in the narrative. There are no gimmicks or cheap thrills, something that we call as the ‘boo’ factor!

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• January 24, 2012 -- ‘Jodi Breakers’ not a copy of ‘Heartbreakers’: R. Madhavan
• December 30, 2011 -- FIRST LOOK: Jodi Breakers
• June 14, 2011 -- Bipasha to pair with Madhavan