Bhoothnath

A young couple sneaks into the Nath Villa, a huge bungalow in Goa, only to discover that a ghost haunts the house, causing them to flee. Days later, Aditya Sharma and his wife Anjali Sharma move into the house with their young son, Aman "Banku" Sharma. Aditya is an engineer working on a cruise line who soon bids Anjali and Banku a brief farewell. Days after Aditya's departure, Anjali hires Anthony, a drunk thief, as a housekeeper. One night, Banku encounters the ghost, whose name is Kailash Nath. Banku nicknames him Bhoothnath, a portmanteau of bhoot (ghost in Hindi) and Nath, his surname.

Though Bhoothnath tries to scare him off, Banku considers him an angel and treats him like a friend. Banku's innocent love melts Bhoothnath's anger and the two soon become best friends. Bhoothnath's son, Vijay Nath, returns from the United States to sell off the bungalow. Bhoothnath is angry, as he does not want his home demolished, and scares the buyers. Anjali comes to know about Bhootnath's existence and he finally reveals his story to Banku and Anjali.

Many years ago, Kailash Nath had a happy family with his wife Nirmala, son Vijay and Vijay's wife. However, after Nirmala died and Vijay tried to sell the house, Kailash refused to allow it, resulting in an argument. Vijay stormed out angrily for his flight to the US; as Kailash ran after him to stop him from leaving, he fell from the top of the stairs. Unaware that he has just died, Kailash rose and ran after Vijay but it was too late: Vijay had already left. As Kailash walks back inside the house, he sees his own dead body lying on the floor and realizes he is now a ghost.

Aditya and Anjali decide to perform Bhoothnath's final rites to give him salvation. During the ceremony, Vijay arrives and apologizes for his mistakes and tell the Sharma family that they can live permanently in the house. A distraught Banku arrives at school, missing Bhoothnath, who has disappeared. However, the two are happily reunited when Bhoothnath returns, though he requests Banku and the viewers to hide it.

• Amitabh Bachchan as Kailash Nath a.k.a. Bhoothnath
• Juhi Chawla as Anjali Sharma
• Shah Rukh Khan as Aditya Sharma
• Aman Siddiqui as Banku Sharma
• Satish Shah as Principal J.J. Irani
• Rajpal Yadav as Anthony
• Priyanshu Chatterjee as Vijay Nath
• Shaana Diya as Shaana Nath, Vijay's wife
• Neena Kulkarni as Nirmala Nath
• Delnaaz Paul as Jojo's mother
• Aashish Chaudhary as Rohan Khurana (Special Appearance)
• Nauheed Cyrusi as Tina (Special Appearance)
• Amit Behl as Doctor
• Anup Upadhyay as Teacher
• Achyut Potdar as Temple Priest
• Atul Srivastava

All songs are composed by Vishal-Shekhar with lyrics by Javed Akhtar.

The film received generally positive response from critics. As of June 2020, the film holds a 60% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on five reviews with an average rating of 6.25/10.[2] At the box office, the film had a slow opening, though it managed to gross ₹68 million (US$950,000) among its theatrical run and was declared semi-hit by Box Office India.[3]

As the film finished with a "to be continued" ending, a sequel to Bhoothnath was expected but there was no clear intention. Bachchan and the original production team announced a sequel, titled Bhoothnath Returns, which was co-written and directed by Nitesh Tiwari, and released on 11 April 2014. Bachchan and Khan reprised their roles, though the latter only had a cameo appearance as himself.

• List of ghost films
• The Canterville Ghost

• Bhoothnath on IMDb