By Swati R Chaudhary, Bollywood Trade News Network

The name Vikram Bhatt is synonymous with relationships and thrillers. RAAZ, KASOOR, ANKAHEE etc bear testimony to the fact that the director harbors a certain predilection for the genre. On the anvil is yet another thriller titled RED- The Dark Side starring Aftab Shivdasani, Celina Jaitley, Amrita Arora and Sushant SIngh. As Aftab Shivdasani puts it, “Vikram is a versatile director. Most of his thrillers have worked. Moreover he has deep insight into human relationships. He is extremely good with ‘relationships’.”

RED is a dark romantic thriller showcasing complex, mysterious relationships. Aftab plays Neel Oberoi who’s diagnosed with a fatal heart ailment. Celina plays a widow- Anahita and Amrita plays Celina’s best friend Ria.

“RED deals with intensity, passion, love, lust, fear, mystery and deception. The colour red signifies all of this and hence the title,” enlightens Vikram adding, “I always feel that there are something’s which we prefer to keep to ourselves. In our life, there are many ‘unspoken moments’, there are many things that we want to tell our loved ones but we hold back. It’s always been my sincere attempt to explore all of this through all my films including RED.”

Ask him what makes him cast the glamorous Celina Jaitley in the role of a widow and he shoots back,” ‘Widow and the white sari cliché’ is beyond my understanding. Today in metros the scenario has changed. Don’t young divorced women and widows have a zest for life? Just like any of us, even they have a right to life, even they have desires and even they want to fall in love!”

Amrita Arora plays the first negative role of her career in RED. She is sporting a new stylized gothic look in the film. “Amrita has always been typecast as a bubbly girl. She has grey shades in RED. I strongly feel that there’s always another side to an actor and this is exactly what I wanted to project,” says Vikram.

The film’s ‘novelty’ is its USP in Vikram’s opinion. “RED has the ‘Bombay monsoon’ feel to it. It’s a very new film in terms of music, looks, performances, dialogues and styling. That makes its unique. I had a fantastic time shooting with everyone,” he wraps up.

Horseshoe Pictures’ RED-The Dark Side is all set to hit the screens on 2nd March 2007. Songs ‘aafreen’ and ‘aameen’ (soundtrack by Himesh Reshammiya) are already a rage topping music charts!