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That’s franchise movies. But we also have universes being made – the spy universe, horror comedy universe. The coming months and the next year is also filled with a long list of franchise and universe movies – from ‘Singham Again’, ‘WAR 3’ to ‘Housefull 5’. So, are sequels the new hit formula? What are the stakes here? And what’s the reason for their popularity. Not to mention, do they always live up to expectations? ETimes speaks to some industry insiders – producer, writer, trade experts to deconstruct this.
The goodwill and brand value
The thing about universe movies or a sequel to a popular franchise is the brand value or awareness which it already has. Trade expert Taran Adarsh says, “Having a sequel is always a great hook to attract the audience. But a sequel or franchise, it comes with a baggage of expectations but you have to go beyond the first part or second part. Brand value helps for the Day 1 but after that, when the public reports, audience reaction on social media is out, you get to know where your film stands.”
Writer-director Milap Zaveri adds, “It’s a huge advantage and a bonus. What ‘Stree 2’ has done is unbelieavable. But credit to Dinesh Vijan and team that they’ve built it up to ‘Stree 2’, they created this universe step by step. I think the sucess of ‘Munjya’ in a way, worked as a predeccessor to ‘Stree 2’. Whether it’s Hollywood or in India, when you have a successful franchise, it helps in a big way. The need to create buzz or awareness is not as much as the new film. There’s ‘Masti‘, ‘Dhamaal’ franchise, ‘Golmaal’, Rohit Shetty’s cop universe – we have so many franchise movies which are popular.”
On public demand
The stakes are really high because of the fact that one doesn’t want to mess up and disappoint the fans of the franchise. In case of ‘Stree’, director Amar Kaushik was scared to make a sequel. While reacting to the success of the film, he also confessed, “Firstly, I want to say a big thank you. I’m overwhelmed because people have made this film their own, the way they are showering love on it. Whenever you are making the sequel, you’re always nervous about it. Start jab film kari thi, mere mann mein tha ke I have to go one notch up. (When we started ‘Stree 2’, I knew we wanted to go a notch up. Yeh film producer nahi chahta tha, director nahi chahta tha, public chahti thi. (The producer did not want the sequel, the director did not want the sequel, it’s the audience who wanted it). The way people are catching small things in the film, I’m just grateful as a director.”
Content is King, despite the goodwill
Film exhibitor and Distributor Akshaye Rathi feels that sequels are not the new hit formula. Here’s why. He says, “It’s great entertaining content which is the only reason for success. We had ‘Pathaan’ which was a part of the Yash Raj spy universe which did the kind of business it did. Then you also had a ‘Jawan’ which was a standalone film. Then we had ‘Animal’ which was again a standalone film. Apart from these, you had movies like ’12th Fail’, or ‘Laapataa Ladies’ or ‘Zara Hatke Zara Bachke’ and ‘Chandu Champion’ which were standalone did well and have taken the year through. It’s the entertaining, engaging content that respects the time of the audience that takes you home.”
Producer Ramesh Taurani, who made the ‘Race’ franchise and the ‘Ishq Vishq’ franchise, opines, “The thing to keep in mind during a sequel is that the script is right. The sequel or any franchise film won’t work if your script is not right. That’s the foremost important and it also takes a lot of hard work. There’s a brand value already to that film, one has to be careful about making a sequel.”
Taran Adarsh echoes the sentiment and says, “Brand value is great and helps in reaching out to the wider audience, especially, if it’s a loved franchise, which we saw in the case like ‘Stree’. However, if you see even the Saturday numbers, it’s trending so huge. It’s madness going on. This is unprecedented for a mid-range film. If it was a ‘Pathaan’, or ‘Jawan’ or ‘Animal’, then this is expected but for ‘Stree 2’ to perform this way, it’s a once in a blue moon kind of a thing. It’s a riot. It doesn’t have the Khans, or Yash of KGF or Prabhas of ‘Baahubali’. And then to collect these kind of numbers, only proves the power of content.”
The risk factor and the challenges
Amar Kaushik opened up on his thought process while making ‘Stree 2’. He said, “When we are making a universe, you have to bring in new characters but you have to maintain the originality of the film. I had that in mind but obviously when you make a univese, the thread, the villain, has to be big. Humour is a big part of my films and my writer and me, our intention is that we want to make people laugh. It’s tough to write such situations but when you also have good actors, they add a lot to the scenes and film. This is not my achievement, but this shows how much the team effort matters for anything.”
Rathi adds that it’s not always guaranteed that a universe film will work. He cited the example of ‘Roohi’ which starred Janhvi Kpoor and Rajkummar Rao. “Attaching a movie to a certain universe, generates awareness. For example, ‘Munjya’ got the benefit as it was a part of Dinesh Vijan’s horror comedy universe. Having said that, if the first screener of the film itself was not engaging, it would not have done well. Another example for that is, there was a movie called ‘Roohi’ which came after ‘Stree’ and did not do well. Eventually, while that awareness and buzz can be created by making a film a part of the franchise, it’s the entertainment value which matters. The audience just sniffs out a film which they want to watch in cinemas, and something they want to keep it later for OTT and a film which they want to skip already,” he said.
Going below standards!
There’s a huge section which feels ‘Race 3’ starring Salman Khan did not do as good as the first two parts. However, producer Ramesh Taurani clarifies, “Race 3 actually collected the maximum business than the first two parts. The first ‘Race’ did Rs 65 crore, the second one did 118 crore and ‘Race 3’ did Rs 180 crore. Because it was Salman Khan’s film, the expectations were higher and it didn’t cross Rs 200 crores, people thought the film didn’t do well. Salman is a mass hero and if his film does slightly less business, people start pointing fingers.”
‘Ishq Vishq Reloaded’ which was a franchise movie after the Shahid Kapoor starrer ‘Ishq Vishq’ also did not do well. Taurani feels that though it did not get numbers at the box office, his intention was to get newcomers and the response they’ve got is very good.
Finding a connect
‘Bunty Aur Babli 2’ was another sequel which did not meet expectations of the audience and was a box office dud. Saif Ali Khan had replaced Abhishek Bachchan in the movie. Writer Milap Zaveri feels that there are some things which are needed in sequels or franchise films in order to keep the audience connected. “Let’s talk about the ‘Masti’ franchice. We are working on ‘Masti 4’, this time for the first time Indra Kumar sir is not directing. He’s only producing and I’m directing part 4. I’ve written part 1 and 2. It works when some things remain constant in franchise movies. What we have kept constant is the three heroes – Aftab Shivdasani, Vivek Oberoi and Riteish Deshmukh. The audience connects because they are the common in all the installments, with the storyline being of men who have issues with their marital life. We always play with their frustration and finding ‘masti’ outside marriage. Some things are constant, where Aftab is always the one who creates this idea. Similarly, in ‘Dhamaal’, Javed’s character is so slow. That has become a part of the pop culture. All this connects beautifully across everyone.”
‘Stree 2’ director Amar Kaushik also says some originality has to be there from the first part. “When we are making a universe, you have to bring in new characters but you have to maintain the originality of the film. I had that in mind but obviously when you make a univese, the thread, the villain, has to be big. Humour is a big part of my films and my writer and me, our intention is that we want to make people laugh. It’s tough to write such situations but when you also have good actors, they add a lot to the scenes and film,” he says.
Being back with a bang despite the downfall!
One cannot deny that universe movies do created a buzz. But that’s not all. Rathi says, “Attaching a movie to a certain universe, generates awareness. For example, ‘Munjya’ got the benefit as it was a part of Dinesh Vijan’s horror comedy universe. Having said that, if the first screener of the film itself was not engaging, it would not have done well. When it’s a sequel or franchise, there is goodwill and familiarity of the first and second edition. Hence, there is so much buzz around ‘Pushpa 2’.”
However, in case of an underwhelming film, a big franchise can surely not stop. He added, “Tiger 3′ was underwhelming. I’m not comparing it to ‘Pathaan’ or ‘WAR’ but just Salman Khan in a film, with a Tiger franchise, under a banner like YRF, production values, obviously the performance was underwhelming. We have also seen it happening that we have the biggest of franchise films collapse after a while. We saw that happening to Marvel Universe, wherein, right where after the Avengers, we didn’t see a film do that kind of magic. We again see the magic coming in with ‘Deadpool’. So, it’s not even like if one film is underwhelming, the franchise will be back. Dinesh Vijan came back with Bhediya and Stree after whatever happened to Roohi.”
Well, in that case, let’s just say, sequels and franchise moves are here to say and we might just see many more universes being announced with new additions to them. Stay tuned…