With Stree, Bala, Bhediya and now Stree 2, Amar Kaushik has a 100 per cent track record at the box office. Almost singlehandedly powering the horror-comedy universe in which all these films (and some more) are set, the filmmaker has propelled Stree 2 to a haul of ₹600-crore and counting, with the Rajkummar Rao-Shraddha Kapoor film pulling in huge crowds even close to a month after release. t2 caught up with the man of the moment for a chat on his latest hit and more.
The crores for Stree 2 just keep coming in! You must be on top of the world...
I am trying to stay grounded! (Laughs) Every day, I look at the figures and I am like ‘wow!’ Actually, I stopped counting after the first few days. I realised that my producer (Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films) was happy with the money coming in, so I stopped counting. I am sent the figures every day, I look at them and I share them on my Instagram handle.
What has made me more happy are the messages, the tweets that people send in after watching the film. I am so happy that they are talking about the film in such a positive way. The numbers will anyway come in. It is the personal messages, the moments of joy that people write in that make me very happy.
What is interesting is that you have surfaced two weeks after the release of Stree 2. You let your film do the talking...
Yes. I told the PR team that I didn’t want to talk before the release of the film. Once it is out, I will speak, irrespective of the film’s fate. I trusted the audience to watch the film, I wanted my film to do all the talking and pull in viewers on its merit. I was also waiting for hardcore fans to watch it more than once because a lot in Stree 2 unravels after the second or third watch. Many viewers have gone in for a repeat watch and they have enjoyed it even more.
What has the most memorable feedback been so far?
There have been quite a few women who messaged saying: ‘In this film, we laughed like men!’ Initially, I didn’t understand what they meant but later I realised ki jo Hindi mein bolte hain na... khul kar hasna. That really made me smile. It warmed my heart that my film was able to bring on that feeling, that emotion.
Since the release, I have been slipping into theatres quietly to see the reactions of the audience. And I actually heard so many women laughing heartily, which is something that was perhaps missing for a long time. I really enjoyed hearing that.
When did you first think that Stree deserved a sequel? You did leave the ending open to interpretation...
When we were making Stree, we never thought that there would be Stree 2. We always knew that Stree was a small film and small films rarely get sequels. But when the film released and blew up in the way it did, people started asking us about a sequel and when it would be made. As you said, the last scene was about Shraddha Kapoor’s character taking out Stree’s choti (braid) and merging it with her own hair and then disappearing from the bus. It was not even planned before, we decided that on the set itself. But that ending left everyone intrigued and the audience wanted to know more.
I made Bala (with Ayushmann Khurrana) between Stree and Bhediya. It was only when I was making Bhediya (starring Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon) that I thought of expanding the universe. That started with me asking what if I put in one of the characters from Stree into Bhediya and make him a bridge between the two films? That is when we thought of Jana (played by Abhishek Banerjee) as the sutradhar in this universe.
While working on Bhediya, we simultaneously started thinking of a story for Stree 2. And slowly, all the connections started happening....
Writing a sequel is a challenge in itself. Connecting and intersecting different films in a universe must be extremely tough. What were the biggest problems you faced?
It definitely is very challenging but the kind of rewards we get, I am ready to take on this kind of a challenge every day. Bollywood is often accused of picking up stories from outside and copying them. So when the audience gets to watch something so uniquely original like the films we have in this horror-comedy universe, then they lap it up. When the challenge is big, when the effort is more, the reward is also commensurate to that.
What were the toughest bits to write and then to shoot?
The climax was tough. We had to reach a conclusion, tie up the loose threads and also lead into the universe and prepare the audience for what to expect next. There are a lot of elements that we had to intelligently, and also in an entertaining manner, stitch together.
Another challenge was in fleshing out the characters, which was also pretty creatively satisfying. In Stree, the background of most characters was shown superficially. We knew there was Shama in Stree, but we only got to see her (played by Tamannaah Bhatia) in Stree 2 because the sequel, and the universe, gave us that scope. So also did Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana) and Chitti’s (Anya Singh) track. Jana is, of course, the common factor in this universe. We wanted the audience to get attached to these characters and it is heartening to see that it has happened.
The climax also had a lot going on...
See, we never wanted to put two songs back-to-back in the climax. Stree didn’t have a song at the end, though I had one in mind but I eventually didn’t put it in because I felt that it didn’t fit in. But after the film released, many people told me that they missed having a song at the end. So this time, I thought I will give them two songs!
We also decided to go with the idea of having three endings for Stree 2. For someone just watching Stree 2, the film ends with Shraddha’s character disappearing. After that, we have Varun’s (Dhawan) entry, which is a key factor in taking the universe forward. If someone wants to know more, then there is more in the climax, carried forward by Akshay Kumar’s character. I wanted to cater to every kind of viewer.
The time taken by a viewer sitting in the middle seat in an audi to reach the exit is roughly one-and-a-half minutes. So I had to arrange all the elements in the climax in such a way that they all happen within that time so that the viewer, even as he is about to leave, stays back to watch.
Well, you are a mathematician along with being a filmmaker!
(Laughs) I just know what the audience likes and wants to watch.
Also, you clearly enjoy being a part of your films in front of the camera as well. One couldn’t miss your exuberant dancing in Aaj ki raat, featuring Tamannaah....
I love it! If it is a good song, I always want to be a part of it. Why should only actors have all the fun?! (Laughs) Actually, my appearances in my films just started for fun and now Vijay Ganguly, who has been the choreographer in all my films, makes sure I get to dance in at least one song in every film.
What is the status of Bhediya 2?
We have almost finished writing a story for Bhediya 2. I have no idea when it will be made but the story is there for sure.
You spent the early part of your childhood years in Arunachal Pradesh and you went back to shoot Bhediya there. What got a young Amar interested in the movies?
In Arunachal Pradesh, I grew up with a lot of fascinating stories, many of which were urban legends. Stories like how a man went into the forest one day, came back only after six months and started behaving like an animal. There was hardly any TV and no mobile phones and storytelling was the only entertainment... that is what I primarily grew up with. But I hadn’t watched a horror film before I made Stree!
What?!
Yes, it is true! I avoided the genre because I simply wasn’t interested in it. I may have watched some part of some films passively... like being in the same room when someone else was watching a horror film or happening to glance at the TV screen while walking by. But I had never watched one by choice.
But when I first got the story (written by Raj & DK) of Stree, I decided to try and make it my own. I made it more desi, made it a part of the Hindi belt, introduced relatable characters that talked and walked like most people in this country. That is what clicked.