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. One day Bhoothnath unintentionally causes Banku to sustain a head injury after startling him and causing him to fall down the stairs; the two reconcile in the hospital and 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 has a happy family with his wife Nirmala, son Vijay. Vijay leaves for higher studies in abroad, gets married and settles in the United States despite Kailash requesting him to return home. Days later Nirmala dies and Vijay returns with his family. Unknown to Kailash, Vijay tries to sell the bunglow. This angers Kailash and it results in an argument. Vijay and his wife, against his own son's and Kailash's protests, get ready to leave for the US . Kailash runs after him to stop him from leaving and falls down the stairs. Unaware that he has just died, Kailash's ghost rises and runs after Vijay but Vijay cannot see him and he leaves. 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. Aditya meets Vijay and confronts him. Guilt ridden, Vijay arrives during the ceremony and apologizes for his mistakes and tells the Sharma family that they can live permanently in the house. Bhoothnath forgives his son and is freed. Banku realises this and gives Bhoothnath a tearful goodbye. A distraught Banku leaves for 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
• Aman Siddiqui as Aman “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
• Shah Rukh Khan as Aditya Sharma (cameo appearance)
• 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 at IMDb