As a child, I was terrified of the dark. I slept in between my parents till I was eight, and even then, I would freak out if they turned off the lights. My parents never thought much of it — many kids are afraid of the dark. I never grew out of it though. I still sleep with a night-light and the TV on. It’s almost as if a live TV set watches over the house while everyone is sleeping.
I realised just how serious my fear was when I was once ill and in bed and parents turned off the lights and shut the door. At first I was fine, because the room had a large window and bright moonlight streamed in. Then it got dark and my room was black. At one point, I was too scared to even call out because I was afraid that the ghosts might hear me before my parents did.
I was also scared to go across to the room and turn the light on. I was afraid that something was under my bed, just waiting for me to put my feet on the floor. The irony of being scared of the dark of course, is we never think about just why a ghost would need the cover of darkness to attack you, like a common thief?
So I’ve actually come to think that the main reason we’re afraid of the dark is because we would like to at least see what is going to kill us. It would be pretty dumb not even to know that before dying! There’s a line in my first horror film Raat which I later reused in Bhoot: “When night falls, we push an electric switch which creates a small portion of light around us. Standing in that light, we feel secure — but we tend to forget the infinite darkness which surrounds that light. Who knows what kind of demons are moving around in that darkness waiting to get at us? Perhaps a day may come when scientific advancements can throw light everywhere where there is darkness. But until that day, we have no choice but to be afraid of the dark.”
