The climax of Stree 2, the latest horror comedy from Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films, was a spin on the Avengers, where all the heroes come together to fight an enemy. Of course, this universe is expanding as there are more creatures in store to provide jump scares and Niren Bhatt isn’t slowing down. The screenwriter, who has penned the blockbuster sequel and other films in the universe including the surprise hit Munjya and Varun Dhawan’s Bhediya, says the team is ready to go “wild”.
“What the historic success of Stree 2 has shown a lot of creators,” he beams as he talks about his latest Rajkummar Rao-Shraddha Kapoor starrer, “is that that the big magical box office number—which we all thought would only come with superstars and action films—is possible. The audience wants a good, entertaining film.”
Filmmaker Amar Kaushik’s Stree 2, which smashed records when it opened earlier this month, stands tall as the only non-action film in the top six highest-grossing films of all time. By the time it ends its run, it is likely to either be at number two, or even surpass the mighty Shah Rukh Khan actioner Jawan.
In an interview with Indianexpress.com, Niren Bhatt decodes what went behind writing Stree 2, its pop culture humour, the backbreaking second half, developing the third part, and expanding the horror comedy universe with the next film Vampires of Vijay Nagar, which is set to star Ayushmann Khurrana.
Edited excerpts:
Screenwriter Niren Bhatt (PR Handout).
What was the prep in writing the sequel?
It was a lot of pressure because people were already saying, ‘Stree 2 should be like this, like that.’ So, Amar and I decided that we would forget Stree one was ever even made and start afresh. For a week we studied the best sequels in the world. Why James Cameron’s Terminator 2 was better than one, why Aliens was a better sequel, and Godfather 2. So, we studied how they were better when part one was already legendary, what elements were working better in the sequels, and how they took the legacy ahead.
Then we incorporated some of that learning in writing Stree 2. We also didn’t want to take visual references from the West, we wanted something of our own. So Sarkata is not the headless horseman from Sleepy Hollow, which everyone has seen. So we thought Sarkata would use his head as his weapon, which would bounce like a ball. The head has the mind, and the body follows it. We started thinking out-of-the-box for everything.
Where did the legend of the headless ghost Sarkata come from?
That was the starting point. If you remember there’s a cave in part one, where they cut the braid of Stree. Inside the caves, there are some murals and in one of them, Stree’s headless lover is shown. We didn’t know if it was by accident, or whether it was headless because these are old statues. From there we thought, we could use this and take it forward. If he’s Stree’s lover, he’s the victim and can’t be the villain.
Then we thought when the prostitute became a witch, the first thing she would do was kill the person who chopped the head off her lover! We thought what if that guy is the powerful chief of Chanderi, which derives its name from his name Chandraban. That’s how it all fall into place!
So, the mural in the frame of Stree led to all of this myth-building?
Yes! Then every thread came together. If you watched the film carefully there are a lot of references to part one. Now that Shraddha Kapoor has the ‘choti (braid)’, we thought about what she could do with it. I thought of the idea that she’d use like a rope dart, the one shown in Ninja films. Pankaj Tripathi’s character keeps saying ‘Shama ka hoga’ every time he gets a phone call. We never saw her face; it wasn’t clear if she was his wife or a lover. In the sequel, we thought of bringing Shama (played by Tammannah Bhatia).
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Why was Sarkata after modern women?
When we decided who would be the head of the town, it was important to establish why he was coming after Stree. He was a debauch, who would watch ‘mujra‘ and go to the extent of even killing people in love. He was an arrogant patriarchal man. When Pankaj Tripathi reads Chanderi puraan, it’s written how for him, the woman must do the dishes, wash clothes and when the man desires, sleep with him. He only saw them as a tool. So, when he abducts women and keeps them in his parallel world, they’re in white saree, bald, standing mute like mannequins. There’s no agency.
How many drafts did you write?
Too many! I think the count went to 17. Writing a comedy is always like this, you can’t judge it at an idea level. You’ve to write it to know how it’ll sound, if it’ll be entertaining. I wrote two-three versions of every scene. There are a lot of versions of the film, some are too eccentric, some too big. Sometimes we let the imagination run wild, only to realise that it won’t be feasible for the kind of VFX and budget we have. I wrote the second half more than 20 times! Overall, it was two and a half years of writing.
The pop culture references in the dialogues were quite quirky. There’s the spin on Rockstar’s ‘Main waha miluga tujhe’ quote, or a character saying Disha PataNahi, tu Animal hai. Was this the tone from the beginning?
This is my style. This was the case even in Bhediya, where Varun says ‘I’m danger‘ from Breaking Bad, or Bhediya responds to Himesh Reshammiya’s “Tera Suroor”. Even Amar Kaushik is like that, and these things go with our characters. Young boys and girls especially in small towns, talk like this where memes and pop culture references come up in their conversations.
You haven’t revealed the name of Shraddha’s character in the film, but have you figured what to name her?
Not yet! We have an idea, a plan but it might change, and we might name her something else. What we were sure of was that we won’t reveal it in Stree 2. It was a good hook to end on.
The climax felt too stuffed, too many things happening, loaded with cameos. It was Avengers coming together. Was it tough to write?
It was the biggest challenge to pack in all those things. We wanted the ‘bali‘ angle to come in, along with Stree, Bhediya, Sarkata, Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor already there inside, the old sword which can kill him, but Sarkata starts multiplying, then it goes back to Raj. The ambition was to keep mounting it. But designing it was tough.
Was Akshay Kumar’s cameo written in the script?
Yes, his character was supposed to be the descendant of Sarkata. But Akshay wasn’t there. Amar met him and Akshay was convinced after he read his scene and loved the overall story. He is displaying his classic straight-faced humour.
How actively is Stree 3 being developed?
Quite aggressively. We have grand plans for Bhediya, Munjya and Stree and now people know they all belong to the same universe. We are all introducing new characters. The next one will be a Vampire film. So, he will also join this gang, whether as an antagonist or protagonist, that you’ll see. But the work is going on in full swing.
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