Stree 2 is coming: Are Bollywood cinegoers more into horror comedy than pure horror films? As the trailer for the upcoming Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor starrer Stree 2 dropped on Thursday and the film is all set to release on August 15 in the theatre, let's find out if the Indian audience loves watching a horror-comedy Desi story more than a pure horror film based on its success!

This is the seventh month of the year, and so far, one can clearly see how horror comedy is still one of the genres that Bollywood movie lovers have been celebrating for the last couple of years. The recent success of Munjiya, Kakuda, or even Bhool Bhulaiya 2 made the makers confident enough to come up with its third installment. The audience is telling how they are ready to celebrate the local stories and folklore with a dash of humour quite openly.

However, it is interesting to notice that the pure horror Bollywood films are not that widely celebrated by the same desi audience. Perhaps that is why, keeping Vikram Bhatt and Ram Gopal Verma aside, we haven't seen Bollywood filmmakers come up with successful horror films; nor have we seen the Khans of Bollywood—Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, and Salman Khan—lead any horror film! Though there's an exception for Aamir, who was part of a supernatural thriller titled Talash,.

While the box office result largely indicates how the consumer of Hindi cinema loves watching rom-coms and action films, here we look at three Bollywood horror films that are worth revisiting. We also give a list of horror comedy that one can re-watch before they go for Stree 2, starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor, directed by Amar Kaushik, produced by Dinesh Vijan.

The top 3 horror films

1920: Directed by Vikram Bhatt, the Hindi film was a loose adaptation of the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. The film revolves around a young married couple played by two debutant actors, Adah Sharma and Rajneesh Duggal. Though usually horror films do not get great footfall during their theatrical release, this film, made under the budget of Rs 7 crore, made good money at the box office with approx. Rs 14 crore.

Raaz: Released in 2002, this was one of the most successful supernatural horror films of Hindi entertainment that became so widely successful that eventually a franchise of horror films started with it. The film was the unofficial Indian adaptation of What Lies Beneath and featured Dino Morya and Bipasha Basu as the leads. It was made under the budget of Rs 5 crore and had a box office collection of Rs 36 crore.

Bhoot: Directed by Ram Gopal Varma, the multi-starrer horror film Bhoot featured Ajay Devgn, Urmila Matondkar, Nana Patekar, Rekha, Fardeen Khan, and Tanuja. The film was made under a budget of Rs 6.7 crore, and it earned Rs 23.7 crore.

The top 3 horror comedy films

Bhediyan: The Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon starrer film Bhediyan is an interestingly told story that addresses multiple social issues, including green carpet conservation, human greed, and folklore in the film. The central character, Bhaskar, played by Varun, gets bitten by a wolf, and a series of incidents follows that give him an eye-opening experience. The film was directed by award-winning filmmaker Amar Kaushik and won multiple awards. The film had a budget of Rs 60 crore and earned a business of Rs 90 crore at the box office.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa: One of the all-time favourites of horror comedy, starring Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, and Shaini Ahuja, the film managed to create magic not only with its story but also with its music. The Priyadarshan directorial was first made in Malayalam in 1993 as Manichitrathazhu. Then the film was remade in three other languages: Kannada, Tamil, and Bengali. When the Hindi version of the film was released in 2007, it proved its box office success, and eventually part two of the film was made in 2023.

Laxmii: Starring Akshay Kumar and Kiara Advani, the film Laxmii was a Hindi remake of a Tamil film. The story revolves around Asif, who does not believe in ghosts, but one day, a supernatural force possesses him, and he starts behaving like a transgender person, and eventually a big, dark secret gets revealed. The film, released on the OTT platform Disney+Hotstar, broke the record for viewership. According to multiple reports published in media, including LetsOTT and Google Trends, it had an all-time high viewership. In fact, the film registered 25.1 million impressions during the television premiere, one of the highest for any Indian film!