Filmmaker Amar Kaushik Street 2 promised to be an entertaining film, but not many expected it to be such a smash hit at the box office. The film has collected a whopping Rs 242.40 crore in just five days. Apart from the makers and the cast, the credit for this also goes largely to the screenwriter Niren Bhatt.
EXCLUSIVE: Stree 2 writer Niren Bhatt on creating the Sarkata monster: ‘This is how he became a symbol of patriarchy’; he also says he was initially unsure about writing Bala because he has ‘thick black hair’.
In an exclusive chat with Bollywood HungamaBhatt spoke jokingly about the film’s numbers. “Haan yaar chaar din mein 200 crores ke baad kaisa lagta hai yeh hum bhi seekh rahe hain pehli baar (laughs). “We have seen that this happens only in films with big stars,” he said.
When asked what their expectations were before the release, he said, “As the release date comes closer, expectations fade away,” he said. “We were sure that it is an entertaining film and will do well. But of course, the numbers that are coming, neither Amar nor I expected. But this proves that people appreciate good content and a good story, irrespective of the people associated with it. People just want to see a good and clean entertainer.”
The Sarkata Monster in Street 2 has become a real hit and it is an important part of the film. Narrating how the whole idea came about, Bhatt explained, “The destroyed idols in the cave where they cut off Stree’s Choti in the first film have their backstory in wall paintings which say that she had a lover when she was a sex worker. The lover was shown headless. Whether the head was cut off because it was a destroyed idol or someone had cut it off is not even mentioned in the first film. But after watching it, we thought we could make it a monster with its head missing.”
He continued, “But he can’t be Stree’s lover because he was killed and why would he go against Stree and pose a danger to others? Then I got the idea that he must be the person who killed Stree and her lover and is responsible for her becoming Stree. So he became the symbol of patriarchy.”
Street 2like the first film, a message against patriarchy but in a subtle way. Commenting on this, Bhatt said, “We have taken this call in all our films. We try to convey the message through the images and make sure that it comes across through entertainment rather than a person preaching it. The question is if you want to defeat patriarchy, but how will you do that? That is why Pankaj Tripathi ji’s character says that he (Sarkata) is Chanderi ka pitru aur apni satta sthapit karne aaya hai. So the translation of patriarchy is ‘pitru satta’.”
He added, “It is not about men versus women. Patriarchy affects both genders equally. That is why both Stree and Purush have to come together. That is why there is the metaphor of Ardha-Nareshwar: only when Shiv and Shakti’s union takes place can you enter his (Sarkata’s) world and defeat him. This way, through such incidents and visual effects, we keep the message in the background so that it is conveyed subtly.”
Bhatt announced that they did not want to make a sequel Street just like that. “When he (Amar Kaushik) directed the first part, he never had the idea of a sequel in mind, although there were certain aspects through which a sequel could have been made, but we didn’t have any big idea,” he said.
Talking to the makers about his writing process, Bhatt said, “I believe in following every thread. The ideas that he (Amar) and I have, we write down first. Then we judge if it is good enough. If we both like it, we pass it on to Dinu (Dinesh Vijan) and if he also likes it, we go ahead. Amar and I have been working together since Bala. We have a different working process. We sit together and talk a lot about ideas and how we approach things. We worked in the same way during Bhediya And Bala.”
With Ayushman Khurrana, Bala was about a man who loses his hair at a young age. I share a funny anecdote before writing BalaBhatt recalled, “I told him (Amar Kaushik) that I have thick black hair. And my father still has that even at 75. So I said, ‘I don’t know anything about hair loss, so how can I write a film about it?’ Amar went through a phase of hair loss, so he explained what all happens in it, how you lose hair while bathing or combing your hair and how to count the hair loss every day (laughs). That’s how I came up with the idea for the whole film. That’s how we keep coming up with ideas.”
Bhatt has a long and varied body of work. Besides the above-mentioned films, he wrote the popular television show Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah for years. He also wrote the serial killer web show Asur, Munjya and a number of Gujarati films and Hindi television shows.
Talking about his experience of working in different mediums, Bhatt said, “The most challenging medium and the one that fascinates me the most has always been films. I didn’t grow up with OTT. I didn’t grow up with today’s shows either. We all grew up in the era of Doordarshan. The biggest fascination in life has always been cinema. It is a communal experience. You see people laughing, crying and whistling together.”
Let us return to the beginning of the discussion about Street 2Given the phenomenal box office returns of The 4000, Bhatt modestly said that they should not let the numbers influence them while writing future films in Dinesh Vijan’s horror-comedy universe.
“We definitely have to forget about that (box office results),” he said. “At the end of the day, we tell people different stories. Some stories are stronger, some are less tangible. So if you decide to do something similar because it did well at the box office once, it’s not going to work because there’s no novelty factor anymore. You have to invent new stories every time. It’s challenging and risky, but that’s what you have to do.”
Starring Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana and Abhishek Banerjee, Street 2 is produced under the names Maddock Films and Jio Studios.
Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Meet Sunil Kumar, who plays Sarkata in Stree 2, stands 7 feet tall and is called ‘The Great Khali of Jammu’.
Other pages: Stree 2 Box Office Collection, Stree 2 Movie Review
BOLLYWOOD NEWS – LIVE UPDATES
Catch us for latest Bollywood News , New Bollywood Movies Update, Box office collection , New Movies Release , Bollywood News Hindi , Entertainment News , Bollywood Live News Today & upcoming movies 2024 and stay updated with latest hindi movies only on Bollywood Hungama.
