When Ram Gopal Verma came up with the first of his ‘Darna…’ series, ‘Darna Mana Hai’, he declared that with it you would ‘giggle with fear’. Neither did anyone giggle nor was there any fear! But with ‘Darna Zaroori Hai’, he promises that the film will scare the daylights out of you as he and his team of directors has made the film as scary and frightening as it gets. Well, one seems to be believe in him this time around as the mammoth starcast comprising of Amitabh Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Anil Kapoor, Mallika Sherawat, Randeep Hooda, Zakir Hussain, Manoj Pahwa, Sunil Shetty, Sonali Kulkarni, Rajpal Yadav, Arjun Rampal, Bipasha Basu, Makrand Deshpande, Rasika Joshi, Isha Kopikar and Shweta Prasad do their best to create an eerie atmosphere. James ‘jodi’ of Mohit Ahlawat and Nisha Kothari appear for two promotional music videos.

The film is made up of seven stories and is told in episodic format. As per the makers, the stories in the film are so horrifying that it will be one of its kind experience for you as you would witness fear as never seen before! In short, the film is about:

A group of kids on a trek An old mansion An old lady A hallucinating professor An insurance agent A successful film director An unfortunate incident and An overgrown kid

It is a riddle in itself to adjudge who is who, but an interesting exercise nevertheless! We will go story by story and fit in the characters, as and where applicable!

Story 1: Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh Director: Ram Gopal Varma

This is the story of an old and a young man. With fear written all over there faces and a dark mood throughout, will Amitabh Bachchan turn out to be a hallucinating professor with Riteish Deshmukh as his student?

The story is directed by Ram Gopal Verma himself.

Story 2: Cast: Anil Kapoor, Mallika Sherawat Director: Jijy Phillip

Now that’s simple. Because by far we all know that Anil Kapoor plays a film director who has number of superhit family dramas to his credit. The man wants to do something new, something different in his new venture! Will ghosts prove to be an inspiration for him? Could be because no man can refuse to answer a question when a lady like Mallika Sherawat asks you mischeviously while looking straight into your eyes - “Kya aap bhooton mein vishwas rakhte hain?”

The story is directed by Jijy Philip who came up with terribly under rated ‘My Wife’s Murder’ last year…again with Anil Kapoor.

Story 3: Cast: Manoj Pahwa Director: Sajid Khan

If the trade buzz is to be believed, this story should turn out to be the most comical yet scary stories of all. And why not when the director at helm is Sajid Khan who makes his debut behind the camera. Also the plot itself is unique with Manoj Pahwa [Being Cyrus] playing the role of a man who doesn’t believe in ghosts and laughs at the very mention of a horror movie. Would Sajid manage to scare him off finally?!

Story 4: Cast: Randeep Hooda, Zakir Hussain Director: J D Chakravarthy

A cop and a convict. And a jail. When Zakir Hussain, a cop, locks up Randeep Honda in the jail, little did he know that he would soon have the scare of his life? Beaten and terrified, Randeep shows other side of his personality too. The personality of a man who has been possessed. Because now some other entity has takes over his real self!

The story is directed by J D Chakravarthy, simply known as Chakri, who played the lead role in ‘Satya’.

Story 5: Cast: Suniel Shetty, Sonali Kulkarni, Rajpal Yadav Director:Vivek Shah

All indications are that this Vivek Shah film has Rajpal Yadav playing an eccentric insurance agent, a part that audience can so very well relate. The man enters the house of a middle class couple played by Suneil Shety and Sonali Kulkarni. Soon he tries to scare them into buying a policy by making statements aloud such as ‘Haadse Kabhi Bata Kar Nahin Hote’. The couple has no other option but to show him the door. But is he someone who can be pushed aside so easily?

Story 6: Cast: Bipasha Basu, Arjun Rampal, Makrand Deshpande Director: Prawal Raman

This story is directed by the same man who was responsible for the entire ‘Darna Mana Hai’. This time around he gets a piece of the pie with Bipasha Basu and Arjun Rampal in the lead along with Makrand Deshpande. With Makrand playing a mystical character and Bipasha looking mysterious as ever, no wonder its ‘darna zaroori hai’ for Arjun Rampal!

Story 7: Cast: An old lady and two kids [one of them being Shweta Prasad (Makdee, Iqbal)] Director: Manish Gupta

The story is about a group of kids on a trek who meet and an old lady in an old mansion. As the kids explore the mansion and find it amusing to move from one place to another, they realize that there is much more to the mansion.

Manish Gupta directs this spooky piece.

While each of the stories has a different director, what is also noticeable is that even the crew ranging from cinematographer, art director to the writer is completely different. No wonder ‘Darna Zarorri Hai’ turns out to be one of the most ‘cast and crew’ heavy movie ever made in India (with an exception of may be JP Dutta’s LOC Kargil!). The film releases coming Friday i.e. 28th April.