“I had told my story about the education system in India. The new film is, however, being directed by Homi Adajania.
“It brings in the audience,” says director Saket Chaudhary, whose film, Hindi Medium, is all set to become a series with Angrezi Medium. Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Pictures, believes the trend is inspired mainly by the success of Hollywood film sequels. Others in the works include Angrezi Medium, Dostana 2, Sadak 2, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Baaghi 3, to name a few. If Imtiaz Ali’s Love Aaj Kal (a retelling of his 2009 hit) released on Valentine’s Day, this week it was the turn of the Ayushmann Khurrana starrer, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (a sequel to Shubh Mangal Saavdhan from 2017 ). And 2020, it seems, will be the year of sequels/spin offs with at least ten such films releasing or being in the pipeline. Director Rohit Shetty is busy creating a whole interconnected cop-universe with the two Singham films, Simmba and the soon-to-be-released Sooryavanshi. “In the last three-four years, sequels have become a trend in Bollywood,” says Chopra, with films like Rock On 2, Student Of The Year 2, Mardaani 2, Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai and the Golmaal and Housefull franchises. There are also the Raaz, Murder and Hate Story series. Dhoom, Race and Dabangg became franchises to look forward to (though not all the films in the series were equally successful). Farhan Akhtar not just directed a remake of the Amitabh Bachchan film, Don (with Shah Rukh Khan in the title role), in 2006, but followed it up with Don 2 in 2011.
Things started changing in the early 2000s, with films like Lage Raho Munna Bhai (a sequel to Munna Bhai MBBS), Hathyar (a sequel to the crime film, Vaastav) and Phir Hera Pheri (which followed the comedy, Hera Pheri). Our greatest films have been standalone stories,” says film critic, Anupama Chopra. “But India doesn’t have a tradition of sequels. There might have been a few other sporadic sequels over the years. In 19, two films, Surakksha and Wardat, were made as part of the Gunmaster G9 series.
The first sequel to be made here was probably Hunterwali Ki Beti, a 1943 film starring Fearless Nadia, which was a sequel to Hunterwali (1935). It took Bollywood a long time to realise this. Sequels are not done for the audience or cinema or the filmmakers.