The Ramsay brothers’ horror films are remembered not only for their monsters and shocks, but for the performers who gave those images a distinct face and physical presence. Ajay Agarwal’s imposing creature work, Jasmine Dhunna’s association with Veerana, and Satish Shah’s makeup-heavy character roles show how actors helped make a recurring horror style recognizable.
How the performers became part of the Ramsay signature
The Ramsays worked in a low-cost horror niche that found committed audiences in India’s B- and C-centers, even as urban English-language press often dismissed the genre. Film scholar Kartik Nair situates the family’s 1970s and 1980s productions within debates over taste and cultural status, and describes an internal star system. In that setting, memorable physical and makeup-driven performances could matter as much as conventional leading roles.
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Director Shyam Ramsay described the formula as deliberate: “That was a pattern we followed purposely because people expected certain things from a Ramsay film- the horror, sleaze, sex, the typical bathroom shower scenes, it had become a brand.” He also said makeup mattered more than visual effects in the family’s earlier films. These are his explanations of the approach, not a single formula that accounts for every film.
Ajay Agarwal: the monster made larger by the camera
The performer credited as Ajay in Shamya Dasgupta’s book excerpt is identified there as Ajay Agarwal. A Hindustan Times caption, however, names Anirudh Agarwal in connection with Bandh Darwaza. The available accounts use different names, so it is safest to preserve the attribution rather than assume every credit is settled.
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Ajay Agarwal recalled that people thought he was seven feet tall, but corrected the impression: “I am six-four. Maybe six-five. That’s all. Tall, but not too tall. People think I am taller, but that’s because Gangu Ramsay shot me in such a way that I looked bigger.” The point is more than a height correction: the actor credited as Ajay described how framing and Gangu Ramsay’s cinematography amplified his physical presence.
Surendra Kumar: appearances in Tahkhana and Veerana
Surendra Kumar appeared in both Tahkhana and Veerana. The book excerpt describes Tahkhana as his second film and Veerana as his eighth, calling the latter one of the Ramsays’ best. Those examples establish a place for him in the family’s filmography without implying a complete count of his Ramsay roles or assigning character names the available account does not provide.
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Jasmine Dhunna and the enduring mystique of Veerana
Jasmine Dhunna’s role in Veerana (1988) became inseparable from the film’s mystique. Family accounts say she stopped taking film work after the movie and asked the Ramsays not to share her contact details. That supports a limited account of her withdrawal from acting and wish for privacy—not the rumors sometimes attached to her disappearance from public view.
The reports do not establish a definitive current location. In 2017, Shyam Ramsay said Dhunna was in Mumbai and had withdrawn after her mother’s death. A 2026 report quotes Deepak Ramsay saying she did not want to act further and had requested privacy. Because the accounts differ on whereabouts, neither should be treated as a verified present-day biography.
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Satish Shah: character work shaped by makeup
Satish Shah recalled playing Sanga, the woodcutter, in Purana Mandir with half-face burn makeup and a crutch. He also described lengthy makeup for his possession role in Saamri, and said Veerana was fun to work on. These are Shah’s memories of the roles and their production, rather than a ranking of his performances.
In a Hindustan Times interview, Shah said: “The Ramsay brothers have always been very enterprising; I was rather fond of them. People thought they were ‘C’ grade movies but I had a ball working with them.” He praised Shyam Ramsay’s directing and Gangu Ramsay’s cinematography, a useful counterpoint to the dismissive label he recalled others applying to the films.
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What these actors reveal about the films
- Role signature: The performer credited as Ajay gave the creature a distinctive physical presence; Dhunna became closely identified with Veerana; Shah recalled character and possession roles built through makeup.
- Recurrence: Kumar’s appearances in Tahkhana and Veerana offer a documented example of a performer recurring across the Ramsay films.
- Construction: The recollections point to the interaction of physicality, makeup, framing, and cinematography—not simply an actor’s height or a film’s effects.
- Evidence: These are selected, attributed examples, not a complete cast database or a defensible best-to-worst ranking of the family’s performers.
For a longer account of the family and its films, see Shamya Dasgupta’s Don’t Disturb the Dead: The Story of the Ramsay Brothers, the book behind the performer excerpt discussed here.
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