Lootcase director Rajesh Krishnan recently bagged the trophy in the Best Debut Director category at the recently concluded 66th Filmfare Awards. There have been a lot of speculations around the film’s sequel ever since it’s release, but ask Rajesh if the win has given a nudge towards that direction and he agrees. He insists that there is one criterion that it needs to fulfil first. “The filter to put here is that do you have a good story? Don’t do it just because it is a practise,” he says.
Rajesh asserts that there have been films where a story of four characters has done well, but then it becomes a tough act to follow. “For example, I haven’t watched Drishyam 2 yet, but whatever I have heard from people who have, I have just heard them raving. For me, I can’t even imagine how would they have followed up after the ending of part 1,” he says, adding that sometimes people make part one thinking of how the sequel would pan out, but he doesn’t work like that. “I don’t think I am that smart or intelligent to just sit one afternoon and write a sequel just because the audience came to watch part 1. If I make a sequel now but with not a great story, it might get a big opening but then it will fizzle out. To add to that, we will be called those idiots who messed around with a great idea. So, if we make a sequel, we need to have a great story that is out of our comfort zone,” he says.
Rajesh insists that he is ready for the sequel but he needs ideas that his team of writers first enjoy themselves and then the producers. “We will do it, even if it takes some years, but we just don’t want to con the audience,” he assures.
So, has there been any ideas yet? “There have been many but most of them are like those that you come out with while drunk at night and then when you are hungover the next day, you realise it wasn’t a good one. However, it’s better if you yourself point that out than the audience saying it later. You have to set a high benchmark for your sequel,” he shares.
Rajesh informs that he wants his film to have a funny story and not be just a gag reel. “Even in part one, I had a lot of arguments with my writers as if something felt like a gag that could be done away with, we removed that. I just don’t want to make a gag-on-gag kind of a movie. If the audience would want to watch something like that, they will see The Kapil Sharma Show,” he says, adding that he believes that even Lootcase wasn’t a completely original story, but it’s the execution that made it work. “There have been a lot of films where the protagonist stumbles onto a lot of money, but what makes any film original is how your story unfold and how your actors execute it on screen,” he concludes.
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