Maddock Supernatural Universe’s first film, Stree, completed six years on August 31. Interestingly, the sequel to the horror-comedy is marching towards newer milestones at the box office currently. Stree 2 starring Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Abhishek Banerjee, Aparshakti Khurana and Pankaj Tripathi, is a blockbuster.
Directed by Amar Kaushik, Niren Bhatt is the writer of Stree 2. While Stree was based on a phenomenon in Karnataka, called Nale Ba (Come Tomorrow), the sequel is a work of fiction. In an exclusive interview with Zoom, writer Niren spoke about bridging the stories to create a world of fantasy.
'Stree based on urban legend, existence of witches not proven'
He told us, “Stree was based on an urban legend. There’s no proof of a witch taking men away. People in Karnataka would write Nale Ba outside their homes. The story was woven around it, and there’s not any one incident to refer to. The existence of witches or ghosts isn’t proven yet. Stree was in the fantasy zone.”
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Sarkata as Stree's lover?
He added, “For Stree 2, we took reference from the fantasy world. There were murals in the cave where Vicky (Rajkummar Rao’s character) cuts Stree’schoti (in the first part) and her backstory was told (in the sequel). Stree’s lover was killed by the people of Chanderi, he was without a head. That’s when the idea came. It was viewed as a Khandit Murti (cursed idol) because it’s centuries old. Then we came up with the idea of a monster who doesn’t have a head. But he couldn’t be Stree’s lover; he was a victim. Later, we thought of building the story of a strong village head called Chandrabhan, jiske naam se Chanderishehar ka naam pada hai. What if he cuts the head of Stree’s lover? The story of Stree returning to avenge his death and his comeback to end her lineage was developed.”
Stree 2 stars Rajkummar Rao as Vicky, Shraddha Kapoor as Stree’s daughter, Abhishek Banerjee as Jana, Aparshakti Khurana as Bittu and Pankaj Tripathi as Rudra. Akshay Kumar and Varun Dhawan’s cameos add to the drama. The film released on August 15.