Neeharikareddyiasacademy at 03:24, 22 January 2026

2026-01-22T03:24:34Z

New page

{{short description|2013 Indian Hindi-language psychological horror film}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Ek Thi Daayan
| image = Ek Thi Poster.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| native_name =
| director = [[Kannan Iyer]]
| writer = [[Mukul Sharma (writer)|Mukul Sharma]] [[Vishal Bhardwaj]]
| based_on = {{based on|''Mobius Trips''|Mukul Sharma}}
| producer = [[Ekta Kapoor]] [[Shobha Kapoor]] Vishal Bhardwaj [[Rekha Bhardwaj]]
| starring = [[Emraan Hashmi]] [[Huma Qureshi]] [[Konkona Sen Sharma]] [[Kalki Koechlin]]
| cinematography = Saurabh Goswami
| editing = [[A. Sreekar Prasad]]
| music = '''Songs:''' [[Vishal Bhardwaj]] '''Score:''' [[Clinton Cerejo]]
| studio = ALT Entertainment VB Pictures
| distributor = [[Balaji Motion Pictures]]
| released = {{Film date|df=yes|2013|04|19}}
| runtime =
| country = India
| language = [[Hindi]]
| budget = {{INR}}24–26 crore<ref>{{cite web|title=Ek Thi Daayan collects Rs 18 crores|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/box-office/Ek-Thi-Daayan-collects-Rs-18-crores/articleshow/19678728.cms|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425212019/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-22/box-office/38734623_1_emraan-hashmi-llb-position-horror-film|url-status=live|archive-date=25 April 2013|date=22 April 2013|work=[[The Times of India]]|access-date=30 July 2013}}</ref><ref name="bo"/>
| gross = {{INR}}40.25 crore<ref name="bo">{{cite web|title=Box-Office Verdicts Of Major Bollywood Releases Of 2013|url=https://boxofficeindia.com/movie.php?movieid=388|date=19 April 2013|work=[[Box Office India]]|access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref>
}}
'''''Ek Thi Daayan''''' (Once there was a [[Daayan|Dayan (witch)]]) is a 2013 Indian [[Hindi]]-language [[supernatural]] [[horror (genre)|horror thriller film]] directed by [[Kannan Iyer]], adapted from the short story ''Mobius Trips'' by [[Mukul Sharma (writer)|Mukul Sharma]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Bollywood movies based on Short stories|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/photo-features/bollywood-movies-based-on-short-stories/photostory/46581369.cms|access-date=30 August 2020|website=The Times of India}}</ref> The film stars [[Emraan Hashmi]], [[Huma Qureshi]], [[Konkona Sen Sharma]] and [[Kalki Koechlin]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Emraan Hashmi turns director for Ek Thi Daayan |url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Bollywood/Emraan-Hashmi-turns-director-for-Ek-Thi-Daayan/Article1-882163.aspx |date=2 July 2012 |work=[[Hindustan Times]] |access-date=26 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113094220/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Bollywood/Emraan-Hashmi-turns-director-for-Ek-Thi-Daayan/Article1-882163.aspx |archive-date=13 January 2013 }}</ref> The film is co-produced by [[Ekta Kapoor]], [[Shobha Kapoor]], [[Vishal Bhardwaj]] and [[Rekha Bhardwaj]]. It was released on 19 April 2013 to positive reviews from critics and decent box-office collections.<ref name="Release">{{cite web | url=http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/cast/id/546319 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122095922/http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/cast/id/546319 | url-status=dead | archive-date=22 January 2012 | title=''Ek Thi Daayan'' has been released | website=[[Bollywood Hungama]] | access-date=15 November 2012}}</ref>

[[Konkona Sen Sharma]] received critical acclaim for her performance and was nominated for [[Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress|Best Supporting Actress]] at the [[59th Filmfare Awards]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.filmfare.com/news/59th-idea-filmfare-awards-nominations-5138.html |title=59th Idea Filmfare Awards nominations |magazine=[[Filmfare]] |date=13 January 2014|access-date=13 January 2014}}</ref>

== Plot ==

Bejoy "Bobo" Charan Mathur is India's top magician, but, unknown to everyone, his life is falling apart. Hallucinations about his dead little sister, Misha, threaten his sanity. One day, he gets drawn to his old and vacant family apartment, where he opens the lid of a treasure chest, only to see a vision of Misha dead inside. He finally seeks psychiatric help from the odd Dr. Palit, who puts him under regression [[hypnosis]] to go back to the past, when Bobo was 11 and Misha was 6.

It is revealed that Bobo and Misha lived with their single father in their apartment. One day, Bobo reads a book about witchcraft, where he discovers the number 666 and uses it to travel on the elevator to an unlisted floor at the bottom of the building, which he tells Misha is the entrance to hell. According to Bobo, each building has its own hell, where the "bad people" of the building are consigned for eternity once they are dead. One day, a woman named Diana moves into their building, and Bobo is convinced that she is a [[daayan]] who surfaced following his and Misha's trip on the elevator.

Diana charms Bobo's father and marries him. Bobo then learns that a daayan's source of power is her plait. On Diana's birthday, during the night of the red moon, she sacrifices Misha to restore her dark powers. Bobo and his father discover Misha's [[corpse]] inside the trunk and a now-undisguised Diana hovering over her body. Diana kills Bobo's father with her ear-piercing screams. As she performs the rest of her ritual, the distraught Bobo finds his father's dagger and cuts off Diana's plait, destroying her source of power. Diana begins to crumble into dust, but she tells him that she will return.

Dr. Palit dismisses Bobo's visions as fantasy. Bobo and Tamara marry and adopt ten-year-old Zubin. Everything goes well until the irresistible Lisa Dutt enters their lives during a magic show. Everyone loves her, but Bobo suspects that the witch is back in the form of Lisa. Lisa buys Bobo's old apartment, adding to his suspicion. During Lisa's housewarming party, Tamara falls off the balcony and is hospitalized. Lisa visits her, but Bobo walks in and angrily tells her to get out when he finds her tinkering with the IV bag. Afraid for his family, he calls Dr. Palit for help.

Dr. Palit finds out something disturbing and calls Bobo, but the witch appears as Diana and kills him. Bobo finds Dr. Palit dead and sees a paper in his hand, on which Zubin's name is written. He looks for Zubin everywhere but finds him missing. He then rushes back to the old apartment and takes the elevator to hell.

There, he finds Zubin lying on an altar and the witch ready to sacrifice his son's life to sustain her powers. Bobo tries to save Zubin but encounters Tamara. In a twist, it is revealed that Tamara is the witch, not Lisa. Diana appears and tells him that he is a [[Pishacha]], because no average person who pushes a button in an elevator finds hell. Tamara tells him that it took her twenty years to be reborn and she will not let him kill her again, and she knocks him unconscious.

Bobo wakes up and remembers the book where he read that a Pishacha can regain his strength on the night of a red moon, and today is the night of the red moon. With his newly acquired powers, he kills Tamara and returns his powers to [[Satan]]. The witch, now in the form of Diana, reveals that only an innocent person can kill a witch, and since Bobo killed her once before, he is no longer innocent. The two fight again until Bobo kicks the sacrificial dagger at Zubin. Zubin then manages to cut off Diana's plait, but the crumbling witch promises that she will return again.

In the end, Bobo meets Lisa, and she asks him why he was so aggressive towards her in the beginning. Bobo tells her that he thought she was a witch.

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* [[Emraan Hashmi]] as Bejoy "Bobo" Charan Mathur
** Vishesh Tiwari as Young Bobo
* [[Huma Qureshi]] as Tamara
* [[Konkona Sen Sharma]] as Diana / Lisa Dutt (fake)
* [[Kalki Koechlin]] as Lisa Dutt
* [[Pawan Malhotra]] as Professor Charan Mathur (Bobo's Dad)
* [[Rajatava Dutta]] as Dr. Ranjan Palit (Bobo's Psychiatrist)
* Bhavesh Balchandani as Zubin Mathur
* [[Sara Arjun]] as Misha Mathur (Bobo's sister)
* [[Vikas Shrivastav]] as Police Inspector
* Pallavi Batra as Sangeeta
* Shireena Sambyal as Anna
* [[Vidyadhar Karmakar]] as Old Man
* [[Deepali Pansare]] as Old Man's Nurse
}}

==Production==
Initially [[Rani Mukerji]] was approached to portray the role of Liza.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rani refused to work in Vishal Bhardwaj’s film over title! |url=https://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/bollywood/rani-refused-to-work-in-vishal-bhardwajs-film-over-title_89703.html |access-date=2025-09-22 |website=Zee News |language=en}}</ref>

The film was shot at [[Filmcity]]. According to director Kannan Iyer, leopards entered the sets during shooting. The uninvited guest was later apparently shooed away.<ref>{{cite web|last=Leopards|first=Ek Thi Daayan|title=Leopard on 'Ek Thi Daayan' sets|url=http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/movies/leopard-on-ek-thi-daayan-sets_113019.htm|work=8 June 2012|date=8 June 2012|publisher=Zee News|access-date=30 October 2012}}</ref>

CGI VFX for the film has been done by “[[Prana Studios]]””Mumbai.

==Marketing==
[[File:Emraan Hashmi and Huma Qureshi.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Hasmi and Qureshi during the promotions of the film.]]
The unique marketing campaign was carried out by the producer [[Ekta Kapoor]] for the promotion of this film. She produced a mini-series aired on the channel [[Life OK]] titled ''[[Ek Thhi Naayka]]'' starring the top actress of [[Indian Television]] from her path-breaking shows, including [[Smriti Irani]], [[Sakshi Tanwar]], [[Shweta Tiwari]], [[Aamna Shariff]], [[Mouli Ganguly]], [[Ankita Lokhande]], [[Kritika Kamra]] and [[Pooja Gaur]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Production News - ''Ek Thi Daayan''|url=http://www.boxofficeindia.co.in/ek-thi-daayan-2/|work=23 June 2012|date=23 June 2012|publisher=boxofficeindia.co.in|access-date=27 October 2012|archive-date=12 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140512215547/http://www.boxofficeindia.co.in/ek-thi-daayan-2/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Soundtrack==
{{Infobox album
| name = Ek Thi Daayan
| type = Soundtrack
| artist = [[Vishal Bhardwaj]]
| cover =
| border = yes
| alt = Ek Thi Daayan
| caption = Ek Thi Daayan
| released = 2013
| recorded = 2013
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = [[Film soundtrack|Feature film soundtrack]]
| length = {{Duration|m=26|s=59}}
| language = [[Hindi language|Hindi]]
| label = [[Sony Music India]]
| producer = [[Vishal Bhardwaj]]
| prev_title = [[Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola]]
| prev_year = 2013
| next_title = [[Dedh Ishqiya]]
| next_year = 2014
}}

The music of ''Ek Thi Daayan'' was composed by [[Vishal Bhardwaj]], with lyrics written by [[Gulzar]].<ref name="lyrics">{{cite web|url=http://lyricsnext.com/movie/ek-thi-daayan/|title=Lyricsnext - Song Lyrics|website=lyricsnext.com|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424055050/http://lyricsnext.com/movie/ek-thi-daayan/|archive-date=24 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> The background score was composed by [[Clinton Cerejo]]. Musicperk.com rated the album 7/10 quoting "This album does impress in parts but fails to make a lasting impression."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.musicperk.com/ek-thi-daayan/|title=Ek Thi Daayan - Musicperk - Trending news, analysis, reviews, ratings and exclusive content for music.|website=www.musicperk.com|access-date=19 May 2013|archive-date=22 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130622233003/http://www.musicperk.com/ek-thi-daayan/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{track listing
| headline = Track listing
| extra_column = Singer(s)
| title1 = Yaaram
| extra1 = [[Sunidhi Chauhan]], [[Clinton Cerejo]]
| length1 = 4:53
| title2 = Totey Ud Gaye
| extra2 = [[Suresh Wadkar]], [[Sukhwinder Singh]], [[Rekha Bhardwaj]]
| length2 = 3:55
| title3 = Kaali Kaali
| extra3 = Clinton Cerejo
| length3 = 6:00
| title4 = Lautungi Main
| extra4 = Rekha Bhardwaj
| length4 = 6:18
| title5 = Sapna Re Sapna
| extra5 = Padmanabh Gaikwad
| total_length = 26:59
| length5 = 5:53
}}

==Release and reception==

===Critical reception===
The film received a mainly positive response with praise particularly for [[Konkona Sen Sharma]], as well as [[Huma Qureshi]] and [[Kalki Koechlin]]. {{Rotten Tomatoes prose|score=80|count=5|average=|consensus=|ref=yes |access-date=August 7, 2022}} [[Taran Adarsh]] of [[Bollywood Hungama]] gave ''Ek Thi Daayan'' 4.3 stars out of 5 and called it "An imaginative and appealing supernatural thriller".<ref>{{cite web|title=Taran Adarsh Review|url=http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/criticreview/id/546319|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202055210/http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/criticreview/id/546319|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 February 2013|author=Taran Adarsh|website=[[Bollywood Hungama]]|access-date=18 April 2013}}{{Rating|3.5|5}}</ref> Meena Iyer of [[The Times of India]] awarded it 3.5 out of 5 while remarking "Woven beautifully between the world of magic, occult and suspense, Ek Thi Daayan, makes for compulsive viewing, providing some spine-chilling thrills at short gaps".<ref>{{cite news|title=Meena Iyer Review|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/hindi/Ek-Thi-Daayan/movie-review/19611581.cms|newspaper=[[The Times of India]]|access-date=18 April 2013}}{{Rating|4.5|5}}</ref> Raja Sen of [[Rediff]] gave it 3 out of 5 star, noting,"Ek Thi Daayan isn't the scariest of horror films. It is, though, smartly crafted, highly original in its approach and a strikingly ambitious effort for the genre".<ref>{{cite web|title=Raja Sen Review|url=http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-ek-thi-daayan-is-impressively-scary/20130419.htm|publisher=Rediff|access-date=18 April 2013}}{{Rating|3|5}}</ref>

===Box office===
''Ek Thi Daayan'' opened at around 30-40% occupancy with better opening in multiplexes rather than single screens<ref>{{cite web|title=Ek Thi Daayan Has Average Opening|url=http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5596&nCat=|publisher=Boxofficeindia.Com|access-date=18 April 2013}}</ref> where it collected around {{INRConvert|6.24|c}} on its first day.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ek Thi Daayan Average Opening Chasme Baddoor Decent Second Week|url=http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5600&nCat=|publisher=Boxofficeindia.Com|access-date=20 April 2013}}</ref> The film did not show any growth further and netted around {{INRConvert|15.5|c}} over the weekend.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ek Thi Daayan Struggles Over Weekend |url=http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5606&nCat= |publisher=Boxofficeindia.Com |access-date=22 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425072918/http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5606&nCat= |archive-date=25 April 2013 }}</ref> Despite low growth over the weekend, the film came out with good total of around {{INR}} 25 crore in its first week.<ref>{{cite web|title=Aashiqui 5 Has Decent Opening Iron Man 3 Has Good Initial |url=http://boxofficeindia.com/boxdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5617&nCat= |publisher=Boxofficeindia.com |access-date=28 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430084855/http://boxofficeindia.com/boxdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5617&nCat= |archive-date=30 April 2013 }}</ref> ''Ek Thi Daayan'' grossed over {{INRConvert|40.25|c}} during its entire theatrical run.<ref name="bo"/>

==References==
{{reflist|33em}}

==External links==
* {{BH movie|ek-thi-daayan}}
* {{IMDb title}}

{{Balaji Telefilms}}

[[Category:2013 films]]
[[Category:2013 horror films]]
[[Category:2013 horror thriller films]]
[[Category:2010s supernatural horror films]]
[[Category:Indian horror thriller films]]
[[Category:Indian supernatural thriller films]]
[[Category:Films set in Mumbai]]
[[Category:Films scored by Vishal Bhardwaj]]
[[Category:Balaji Motion Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films about witchcraft]]
[[Category:Indian supernatural horror films]]
[[Category:Films based on Indian short stories]]
[[Category:Films based on Indian folklore]]

Ek Thi Daayan - Revision history

Neeharikareddyiasacademy at 03:24, 22 January 2026