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EXCLUSIVE: Rajkummar Rao was always my first choice for Vicky, says Stree writer-producer Raj Nidimoru
In a candid chat with PINKVILLA, writer-producer Raj Nidimoru spoke about the colossal success of the movie, Rajkummar being his first voice for Vicky, and if Shraddha was really a ghost in the movie. Read the details.
Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor starrer Stree has turned out to be a rage at the box office. The horror comedy produced by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K, popularly known as Raj and DK, has already crossed the Rs 100 crore mark at the BO which is a huge feat. The movie also stars Aparshakti Khurrana, Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Banerjee among others in pivotal roles. In a candid chat with PINKVILLA, writer-producer Raj Nidimoru spoke about the colossal success of the movie, Rajkummar being his first voice for Vicky, and if Shraddha was really a ghost in the movie. Without much ado, check out what he had to say,
Were you surprised to see the kind of numbers the movie made given it was a horror comedy which is not very common in Hindi cinema?
It is a great validation as we kind of stuck to the kind of films we do and they have been out of the box, whacky quirky movies. Some worked, some didn't... even though people say satire is not everyone's cup of tea, we always thought even the wider audience can enjoy it and I am just happy that our brand of humour and films is appealing to a wider audience.
Not just the horror comedy part, this is an absurd idea. I remember having a similar feeling during Go Goa Gone when I was speaking to Saif Ali Khan and others... everybody was taken aback that you guys first did Shor in the City and now you want to do zombies... but that was the fun part of it. We are always excited as filmmakers and we knew that Stree was that kind of an absurd idea but it was dished in a more familiar plate. It is the kind of people you might know, the town you are familiar with, there is so much of nostalgia in Stree. We knew it is a special film and people will love it but we did not know how many people are going to come and watch it. There is a big difference. We were sure that whoever is going to watch it, will laugh their a**es off. However, we did not know that the entire country will watch. (laughs)
As a writer, which character is perhaps the most complicated and interesting one to write according to you?
Every one of them was special and we knew what was coming out of them but you never know if the chemistry is going to work out. When you start shooting is the time you know how these guys are bonding with each other. Of course, director Amar Kaushik did a fabulous job putting all these guys together. But for me, I always go back to Vicky's character because he was the unassuming hero. The idea was to create a character who is a nagar ka hero except his mother was a whore. Where do you come up with a guy with that kind of a past? He is going through more emotions than anyone else if you think about it. It is an extremely interesting and complicated character according to me in the movie. He has so much going on.
The movie has a social message underlining to it. Was it a conscious decision to have it or it happened organically?
No, not at all. We are not the kind of people who will say that let's do some social crusading. I am a socially aware person and I know that movies affect people but I think relevance is important more than anything else. While writing this, it was just a horror comedy but I liked the gender diversion, the role diversion when the predator becomes the prey and vice versa. That's when I suddenly saw the relevance [of the subjects] to the film, there is a lot of subtext to the film that flows through, taking on mob mentality and patriarchy. For me, it is a huge satire and if it has a great stage like a horror and comedy then you become so proud of the film.
The climax is perhaps the most talked about part in the movie, almost similar to the Baahubali-Katappa climax. Tell us a little about it?
I think I am very happy that people are discussing it. It is perhaps one of the most asked questions. The thing is in a film. what you see it is what you see. The moment, the director or the writer explains the thing, then it is off the cinema, that is not in the film anymore. Yes, there are a couple of possibilities that she could be more than what you see as a person.
But was Shraddha's character the ghost in the movie?
Honestly, I don't have a full answer because I need to sit and write it. There is so much pressure now as a writer. Now, I have people coming up with so many theories and really good theories but I still have to surprise you guys na.
Was a sequel pre-planned or looking at the response to the film, you decided to come up with a sequel?
We leave scripts open-ended a lot of times. We have a closure but I love to keep it open-ended. You don't leave it like that without having anything in mind. We had this idea that we should extend this to something more and that this is just chapter one now and there could be chapter 2-3 for her because we don't know who is she, where has she come from and more so, in fact, she is like the girl with no name, Shraddha Kapor. So, that's the fun of it.
When do you begin writing for the sequel?
I had a couple of sleepless nights on how to better this now but then I decided that let the film run its course and sit back and once it settles down, it will be the right time to start writing about it because right now you can get swayed with so many voices.
Were Rajkummar and Shraddha always the first choice for the movie?
Rajkummar was always the first choice, even before anything else came about. The first person I went to was Rajkummar as I envisioned him to be Vicky and he immediately jumped on it. I was so glad that he agreed. And Shraddha was really Dinesh Vijan's idea. I had interacted with her before so I had thought she is very whacky and I agreed with Dinesh.
Do we see Stree releasing next year?
Next year would be really hard, I think. We might miss next year by a bit, I think but it should release in 2020.
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