“Stree 2,” already Bollywood’s biggest hit film of the year, and India’s second highest grossing film of 2024, is poised to be joined by one or more sequels, its director Amar Kaushik said on Wednesday.
Kaushik was speaking at a Knowledge Series seminar which is part of the Film Bazaar project market that sits alongside the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.
“We have stories in mind and will shoot soon, though there’s is no definite timetable. Of course, it will have to be done in Madhya Pradesh. And we may explore other parts of the state,” Kaushik said.
Kaushik revealed that Madhya Pradesh was not where he first envisaged making the horror comedy that was saw its first instalment emerge in in 2018 and spawn a sequel that released earlier this year.
“’Stree’ was originally going to be made here in Goa. But then we chose to relocate to the heartland and selected Chanderi in MP. I wanted to avoid some of the horror stereotypes and sought out a city rather than a beach or a haunted house. In Chanderi [we found such a richness of choice that] every lane and street seemed to be calling out to me. I’ll make ‘Stree 3’ or ‘Stree 4’ there again.”
The seminar, intended to explain the strengths of the state of Madhya Pradesh as a film and TV production location, covered aspects such as financial incentives, location scouting and craft skills.
The state initiated filming incentives in 2020 and is expected to expand them further in the near future.
“Incentives are a work in progress, we are open to new ideas to further innovating on the policy,” said Sheo Shekhar Shukla, principal secretary of the department of tourism and culture in Madhya Pradesh.
He claimed that the incentives, breadth of locations and its location services make the state the most film friendly in India. Locations can be scouted from a film promotion website and there is a “film facilitation cell that can help explore beyond the easy and obvious.” He also said that the state is a safe destination for women and that more women are being trained to be in the front line of tourism and film facilitation.
Aparna Purohit, the former Netflix executive who now heads Aamir Khan Productions, and previously shot Kiran Rao’s “Laapataa Ladies” in the state, was also full of praise. “Within an 80km radius of Bhopal, we found everything we needed. In fact, we sought two things and found ten,” she said.
Nitanshi Goel, the film’s co-lead actor, called the locally-cast performers “supremely talented.” The film is India’s contender for the best international film Oscar this year.
Further institutional development of the state may also be on the way. Actor and producer, Vani Tripathi Tikoo was a founder of the Madhya Pradesh Natya Vidyalaya drama school in Bhopal, which after 16 years of operation, is now set to be upgraded to university status. She also said that she was in the process of setting up a development lab project for young creators
