Director Amar Kaushik is basking in the success of the horror-comedy Stree 2. The film, starring Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Banerjee, and Aparshakti Khurana, is inching towards becoming the highest Hindi grosser of 2024. Till its first Monday, Stree 2 has already raked in about Rs 230 crore in India.
The filmmaker, in a recent interview, spoke about how he emphasises storytelling more than star power and how he got Akshay Kumar to do a cameo for the film.
“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,” Amar said in a conversation with Connect Cine. “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. 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.”
Speaking about how he got Akshay Kumar to do a cameo in the film, Amar said that he approached the actor while they were working together on their upcoming film Sky Force. “I narrated him the story on the streets of London and he was like ‘karunga beta, bilkul karunga’ (Son, I’ll do it definitely).”
“Akshay sir really enjoyed on the set. He wanted multiple versions of the same scene and gave multiple takes. I was just seeing his energy and enjoying it so much. I put Abhishek in the scene and told him to do bindas acting with him, and the way it came out, we even fell laughing on the set. It was also an improvised scene. So, I was making Abhishek sit on the inside but Akshay sir added the line, ‘ come sit on my lap,’ in response, Abhishek added the Covid line. The script was hilarious but the way they acted…that’s how you make a scene beautiful,” he added.