Director Pawan Kripalani is a self- confessed lover of the thriller-horror genre but the director says with "Phobia", he also wanted to explore violence in society and its impact on people
The movie has opened to good reviews with critics praising the gripping storyline and its lead actress, Radhika Apte's powerful performance as a woman scared to step out of her home. Apte's character develops agoraphobia after escaping a rape attempt by a taxi driver.
"Within this story, there is the larger issue of our own urban spaces and how violence in the society is getting to people. Subtextually, I wanted to make a comment about it," Pawan said. The director, who has previously helmed "Ragini MMS" and "Darr @ The Mall", loves watching movies in the horror- thriller space, but rues that Bollywood does not churn out good stories in the genre. He counts Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" and "Rosemary's Baby" among the movies that influenced him while growing up. "I enjoy horror, psychological thriller. They are siblings. At the base level, they both are playing with the emotion of fear. I like being in that space. I am not going to step away from this place till I feel I have made the perfect film."
"Radhika was the first person, I narrated the story to. She is a great actor. The movie's story is very dependent on the actor as that person is in every frame, so I needed a performer like her. We were working on something else but when I told her this story, she instantly came on board."