Vikram Bhatt takes a break from direction

Vikram Bhatt is taking a break from direction, a rather long one at that, and the first casualty of this decision has turned out to be Haunted 2. The sequel to his successful 3D affair, which was earlier supposed to be directed by him, is now in need of a new director who would take over the affairs.

"The year gone by has been really hectic for Vikram and he can't be jumping into his next project soon", informs a source close to the director, "Earlier this year he was working non-stop on Dangerous Ishhq and Raaz 3, the schedules of which literally overlapped with each other. In the middle of this he also had to supervise the release of his other productions like Hate Story and 1920 - Evil Returns. In the process of doing that he has managed to streamline his production house (ASA) but now he has to further consolidate its prospects."

This also means that he would be sacrificing his first love of being a director as he can't see himself handling both tasks simultaneously.

"He tried that right through 2012 but doesn't want to suffer from any burnout", the source continues, "The going has been good for him of late and he doesn't intend to repeat his mistakes from the past when he was overburdened with work and ended up facing back to back failures. He wants to go slow and if this means staying away from direction for close to a year and prioritize production for some time to come, he would rather choose that."

When contacted, Vikram confessed that direction is indeed taking a backseat for him till middle of next year at the least.

He says, "When I direct a film, I get really occupied during those 70-80 days on the sets. Later when I get busy with post-production and marketing, my work on other productions suffer. I don't want that to happen and now that ASA is on a roll, I would rather help get other productions on floor before starting one of my own films. Yes, Haunted 2 would definitely be made very soon but it won't be directed by me."