In the last quarter of 2024, Bollywood is looking to see if Ajay Devgn’s Singham Again and Kartik Aaryan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 will restore the audience’s faith in the industry that has been consistently disappointing through the year. Curiously, both Diwali releases are the third parts of hugely successful action and comedy-horror franchises respectively. There is another thing common in them. Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar starred in Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) and then allowed Kartik Aaryan to step into the sequel 15 years later in 2022. Now, when Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 hits the screens next week, it will find it has to contend with Akshay who plays super cop Veer Sooryavanshi in Singham Again after making a thrilling entry with this gritty character in Sooryavanshi (2021).  

While the Singham series has been Rohit Shetty’s directorial all the while and a part of the action director’s Cop Universe films, the Bhool Bhulaiyaa films were helmed by Priyadarshan first and then subsequently by Anees Bazmee. There has been a turnover in its cast, as well. Vidya Balan, who brilliantly played dual roles in the first part, returns in the third 17 years later as her avatar of the ghost of classical dancer Manjulika from Bengal who gave audiences the creeps in 2007. However, it appears Manjulika is not the ghost in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 but Madhuri Dixit is. Yes, it is all very confusing, but the trailer was extremely gripping and audiences and fans of the stellar star cast (Kartik, Madhuri, Vidya, Tripti Dimri) cannot wait for the curtains to go up on the Bazmee Diwali directorial.