Although he starred in Stree 2, the biggest Hindi film released this year, actor Pankaj Tripathi isn’t particularly impacted by the movie’s outcome. “It brings me immense delight that a movie with such a small budget turned out to be such a huge hit. Aapka dimaag kharab nahi hona chahiye par ye success se.”
He says, “Ek thehraav rehna chahiye.” The actor, who has appeared in both successful and unsuccessful franchises, offers his thoughts on Bollywood’s fixation with sequels.
“It takes more than a successful movie to create a franchise,” he argues. For that, you need a special movie. A successful movie isn’t always original. Stree met two of the criteria. Thus, that also plays a role.
The biggest blockbusters this year were sequels, including Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, Singham Again, and Stree 2. However, Bollywood did not perform well at the box office overall. He responds, “I am an actor, and I don’t have an expertise in the business side of films,” when asked what caused this gap with the public.
However, the audience is erratic; their preferences might shift at any time. Apna mann bana leti hai, wo trailer dekh ke hi. Baaki advertising, gimmicks, and stunts are all very ineffective. In his discussion of Stree 2, Pankaj offers this intriguing anecdote: “The producers had informed me during Stree that they would pay me a bonus if Stree performed very well. Four people crossed that threshold.”
“I didn’t even know when the makers had put that same clause in my contract for Stree 2 too, as for (producer) Dinesh Vijan’s films I never read the agreement. And the figure for the sequel was crossed in just two days.”