Zee TV out to scare the living daylights with the return of Fear Files

Horror docudrama ‘Fear Files – Darr Ki Sacchi Tasveerein’ returns to the small screen for its third season after a gap of three years. The new edition of ‘Fear Files’ premieres on Zee TV on Saturday, July 22, and will air every Saturday and Sunday at 10.30 pm. Narrated in a video diary format, the show will endeavour to demystify intriguing, unfathomable events that have occurred in different parts of the country.  

In its third season, ‘Fear Files’ will have 30 episodes and is being produced by Bodhi Tree Productions, with Sukesh Motwani and Mautik Tolia at the helm.

Staying true to the latest season’s core proposition of presenting real life accounts of horror, Zee TV’s integrated marketing campaign for the show will take a user-generated content approach that will call out to viewers to share their own experiences of the paranormal kind. Fuelling discussions on social media through #MyFearFiles, viewers will be asked to share their personal accounts of horror through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, the best of which will be gratified by basing episodes on them, creating parallel online content in the form of video diaries based on some of these true stories, featuring the interesting ones on Zee TV’s official pages, basing the campaign’s outdoor creatives on the stories and populating them through the first-ever marketing campaign based on true life horror stories.  

By way of an innovative activation, Zee TV will capture audiences across malls and create an experience of horror with augmented reality that uses computer graphics and sensors. The idea is to make viewers actually experience the haunted, bringing alive ‘darr ki sachi tasveerein’. The channel is collaborating with ‘Terrible Tiny Tales’ to create the spookiest tiny tales ever. Users who share the best real life accounts will be promoted on the ‘TTT’ official page.

Deepak Rajadhyaksha, Deputy Business Head, Zee TV, noted, “Right since it first launched in 2012, ‘Fear Files’ has commanded a dedicated viewership as the franchise brings stories that are well-researched, establish human connections and dwell on the human angles and emotions that bring alive relationships between their characters rather than merely narrate a story of horror. That way, each account becomes far more relatable and evokes a sense of ‘This could happen to you’. We only hope to further build affinity towards the franchise amongst audiences with this new season. After the success of ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs’, this year’s No. 1 non-fiction show across GECs, we only further fortify our weekend line-up with ‘India’s Best Judwaah’ and ‘Fear Files’.”

Sukesh Motwani, Producer, Bodhi Tree Multimedia, added here, “‘Fear Files’, as a brand, has always stood for riveting tales of the supernatural, inspired by real accounts that have occurred across various parts of the country. The ‘fear’ rasa is being explored using an authentic and credible visual treatment. The visual style of storytelling and the motifs of fear being used will be richer and bigger in scale and more innovative this season, almost akin to contours of what we could call as a ‘weekend horror movie experience’ on Zee TV. I have been fortunate that I was at the forefront of the fiction team at Zee in 2012 when we at Zee created this property and Mautik, my partner at Bodhi Tree, was the script head of the show and today in 2017, we are immensely grateful that the Zee Team has chosen us to produce this season.”

When asked about the three-year hiatus before launching Season 3, Rajadhyaksha replied that Zee TV wanted to bring in some non-friction content to entertain the audience as ‘Fear Files’ as a brand has always stood for terror tales. However, since the horror genre had been missing for a while on Zee, the channel decided on the comeback for ‘Fear Files’.  

He remarked, “Fear is a constant emotion and till human beings are alive, the fear factor also lives. So, it was not that much of a challenge to connect with the viewers and to maintain the credibility of the content.”  

Speaking on what to expect in Season 3, Rajadhyaksha said, “This season is totally different from the previous seasons in terms of the treatment, storytelling and the overall performance. This season will give a very real kind of feel because the episodes are based on real life stories.” 

He further said, “We have not manipulated the storylines and have tried to keep them as close to the real incidents as possible. The background and camera angles play an important part in creating the mood and setting. I would say that the beauty and the natural element are the two key parameters of ‘Fear Files Season 3’.”

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