Vikram Aur Betaal is based on ‘Betaal Pachisi’, written in the 11th century by Kashmiri poet Somdev Bhatt. These are spellbinding stories told to the wise King Vikramaditya by the witty ghost Betaal. Vikramaditya was a great king who ruled over a prosperous kingdom from his capital at Ujjain.
According to the legend the King Vikramaditya, in order to fulfill a vow, was required to remove a corpse of Betaal from a treetop and carry it on his shoulder to another place in silence. En route, the spirit of Betaal (in the corpse) used to narrate a story to the king and after completing the story Betaal would pose a query that if he (The king) knew the answer, was bound to respond lest he will break his head into thousand pieces. But if he does speak out, he would break the vow of silence and Betaal would fly back to the treetop, leaving the king inches short of his destination.