Sandalwood directors are also cashing in on the success of hit flicks
A still from Uppi 2
It was always Hollywood which was addicted to sequels, and went on an overdrive after the success of super hero comic flicks — Batman, Spiderman and many more. Then, Bollywood picked it up with Dhoom and then, Krrish came along targeting the younger audience. And now Sandalwood follows suit with Rakshit Shetty’s comedies. Though there were one or two sequels in the past, there is a sudden surge with at least half a dozen sequels including Uppi 2, Mungaru Male 2, Ayya 2, Huccha 2 along with rumours of AK-57, a sequel to AK-47, A 2 and Sssh 2 making the rounds.
The directors with six back-to-back hits — Shashank has also churned out Krishna Leela which completed 100 days at the box office. He is all set to direct Mungaru Male 2, a sequel to the mega hit 2006 film Mungaru Male which created Golden Star Ganesh, made the director Yograj Bhat a household name and the melodious songs composed by Manomurthy, a hit. It also led to the rise of Sonu Nigam as Kannada singer.
“The sequel to Mungaru Male definitely requires huge efforts, to meet that expectation. If not, the audience will be disappointed. It has to be better than the first one,” says Shashank.
He further adds that he is well aware of the strengths of the original one, “However, though I have picked up the essence of the first one, I have taken a different approach. A lot of things like the hero’s character, rain, music, and amazing cinematography played a huge role. But this time the story will be entirely different.” Like the first version which made Pooja Gandhi an instant star, this one too stars a newcomer — Neha Shetty, a former Miss Mangaluru, who is presently taking an acting class for the all-important sequel.
In Uppi 2, the hit sequel to Upendra released in 1999, Parul Yadav plays a Brahmin girl with different shades to her character. The actress and her director-actor Upendra are tight lipped about the film.
Whereas Chiranjeevi Sarja, who features in Ayya 2, a sequel to Ayya which was portrayed by Challenging Darshan in the original, says, “The essence of the story is most important for the sequel to work. I believe in the story. In case of Dhoom, every sequel had different actors and it worked really well. There has to be something different otherwise it will not work,” he feels, adding that Om Prakash Rao who directed the original had a great vision for Ayya 2 which was his motivating factor to sign this film.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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