Upping the Game

When any film becomes a hit, the biggest advantage for its makers is that a sequel can just pick up the threads from where the earlier film left off. Add to that, the brand value of the film is sure to attract the audiences and so, the makers do not have the hassle of re-branding the film. And filmmakers seem to have understood this quite well, considering a huge number of sequels are in the offing like never before.

Since these sequels have to live up to the success and match the content of the original, it seems makers are going out of their way and over the top in a bid to take them to the next level.

Take the example of 2.0 where Akshay Kumar was roped in alongside Rajinikanth for a pan Indian appeal, or the sequel to Guntur Talkies that will star Sunny Leone and is being made in Hindi and Tamil, along with the Telugu version. We also have Raghuvaran B.Tech 2 which stars Kajol, and Baahubali 2, for which six stunt technicians were roped in from Hollywood.

Similarly, director Omkar roped in Nagarjuna for the sequel of his 2015 sleeper hit Raju Gaari Gadhi, in which even Samantha is rumoured to be playing a key role.

One wonders why makers are willing to put so much effort into a film that can easily attract crowds even without all the effort. Raju Mahalingam, creative head at Lyca Productions, the organisation behind 2.0, sequel of Robo explains that when a larger-than-life film is brought on to the screen, the audience expects a spectacle.

“Foremost, it is a story that requires big names to be brought on board. As for Robo, it was a conscious decision to make it a big franchise. In fact, we considered roping in Arnold Schwarzenegger for the film, but when things didn’t materialise, Akshay  Kumar was roped in. The audience expects something huge and if it’s going be another ordinary film, where’s the ring to it,” he asks.

Director Rajamouli, who spoke at a recent event explaining why his film Baahubali 2 will have to be bigger than Baahubali, echoes Raju. “The success of the film was primarily because of its VFX, war sequences and the action blocks. When the audience comes to watch a sequel, they obviously expect a lot more. That’s the reason we are leaving no stone unturned to make the sequel much bigger,” he explained.

The film was joined by the likes of Morne Van Tonder, Lee Whitaker, Brad Allan, Larnell Stovall and John Griffith who have all done different work on films like Doomsday, Pearl Harbour, Hunger Games, X-Men First Class and Planet of the Apes to enhance the film’s international appeal.

Another example of such a trend is the sequel of Guntur Talkies, which will see Sunny Leone being roped in. The film’s producer and director Raj Kumar reveals that the reason to make this big was because the first film itself had the appeal to reach out to a wider crowd. “It will be the same with this film and that’s why we felt it would be good to rope in a bigger star cast and take the film to the Tamil and Hindi audiences too,” he explains. With the canvas of storytelling becoming bigger, can the makers live up to the untoward hype? Only time will tell.