Paper short abstract:

A profusion of paranormal elements can be found in Bollywood ‘Horror’ movies or popular Hindi TV serials, from haunted houses to witchcraft killings. However, apart from depicting horrific situations in gory detail, we find strategies to provide explanations or patterns behind the events in many films.

Paper long abstract:

Different strategies are followed to come to terms with seemingly supernatural and horrifying happenings. As the pathetic Canterbury Ghost of Oscar Wilde, the spirit can be ridiculed and the 'human' side of one who has been badly cheated be revealed, making him a loveable buddy (Bhuthnath 2008). Another strategy is to unveil the psychological mindset behind paranormal behaviour by introducing a protagonist to elaborate on schizophrenia or split identities (Bhulbhulaya 2007). In recently started TV serials (Fear Files 2012), we even see a professional anchor or a 'real victim' to introduce the respective sequence, in which certain paranormal happenings are re-enacted and commented upon by a 'paranormal expert', explaining them with various psychological disorders, subconscious phenomena, hypnotic experiences etc., especially in urban settings. Other episodes, preferably in rural setting, show witchcraft by a ḍain (witch) as the revenge of a woman who was raped and beaten to death by villagers, or let an aborted female child act as a ghost who kills all female members of the household responsible for her abortion. Here, clear messages of social reform are voiced in the end by the 'paranormal expert'. (These 'instructions of the public' might gain significance in view of the recent murder of a prominent activist against superstition and Black Magic at Pune). This paper will focus on the treatment of 'traditional' elements of Indian witchcraft, which are to be solved by social change, against a set of paranormal effects, that can be obviously given (pseudo-)scientific explanations or solutions.