Amar Kaushik’s film, Stree 2 was released in theatres on August 15. The Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao starrer film has broken records at the box office and become the highest-grossing film of 2024 yet. In a recent chat, Amar Kaushik spoke about how he doesn’t rely on a “star” but instead, focuses on the right actors for the right script.
Speaking to Connect Cine, Amar said, “I don’t know about other films, but we don’t chase after a star. We don’t build our story around a star; instead, we first craft the story and then cast the right people for it. I remember feeling the same way as the audience five years ago, thinking, ‘Where is the story?’ Everything revolved around the star, and I didn’t enjoy that.”
He added, “The audience is smart—they know what you’re trying to sell them. We need to create films that connect with them. Ultimately, we are serving the audience, and I want them to leave the theatre entertained. You can’t deny the value of a star, but not everything should revolve around them. You need to create a star with your team, not just rely on a single person.”
For the unversed, the film has emerged as the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2024 with an estimated box office collection of Rs 228 Cr in just five days. Stree 2 beat Hrithik Roshan’s Fighter and Prabhas-Amitabh Bachchan’s Kalki 2898 AD to record the highest opening weekend this year with its extended weekend. Stree 2 has also already surpassed the lifetime collection of Fighter.
Reacting to the positive response from the audience, Amar Kaushik said, “I didn’t expect this big response. I think the audience wants such films to come out. Where ever I would go, people kept asking me ‘What is the end of Stree?’ This film was made on public demand. We didn’t hurry with this film because we wanted to do justice to the story. We thought it clicked well with the public when we released the trailer but when we opened the advance ticket sale, we were like, ‘What is happening?’ This is just love of the public.”
Stree 2 is a sequel to the 2018 release, Stree. The first film collected a lifetime box office collection of Rs 129.90 Cr. The sequel brought back the OG cast from the first film — Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Banerjee and Aparshakti Khurana. However, it also added an interesting mix of actors in the form of cameos.
The Amar Kaushik directorial featured cameo by Varun Dhawan in his Bhediya avatar, Akshay Kumar as the possible new villain. The film also featured Tamannaah Bhatia as Pankaj Tripathi’s love interest.
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