Amid Shraddha Kapoor-Rajkummar Rao credit war, director Amar Kaushik says Stree 2 is not just ‘a female-centric film’: ‘It belongs to…’  

Reacting to the film performing well at the box office and receiving rave reviews from the audience as well as film critics, Amar says, “I am very happy actually. I am very happy that the film is performing so well at the box office. I always had this one thing in my mind: numbers should not come by fluke whenever I make a film. For Stree 2, I wanted to make sure that people are not going to watch it only because they loved part one. It was important for me that people like the film. I have always craved love from the reviewers as well as the audience.”

“I have come to London because I had some work and I didn’t want this success to go to my head because I have a lot of work to do. I have been around only for six years. It is just the beginning. I just want to celebrate this for around a month, and then start working on the next film, like it is my first film,” he adds.

Kaushik then credits all the women in his life, and the women audience for the success of the film. He says, “The power women is attached to the film. Before coming to London, I was going every day to watch the film, see how people are reacting to the film in cinema halls. I used to stand behind and see, I could hear women laughing while watching the film. Of course, even the men were enjoying watching the film but women especially were enjoying it. The way women are going ahead and pouring their love for the film, laughing their hearts out, I feel that’s the victory of the film.

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Stree 2 was released in cinemas on August 15, and under a week, it has managed to rake in Rs 300+ crore at the box office already, breaking the record of Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan and Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal. On this, Kaushik says, “Talking about the box office, it is a part and parcel of being in this business, making cinema. Today, it is our film, tomorrow it will be another film. I am really loving the fact that people are not only going to cinemas but also enjoying themselves. That’s the kind of reaction I crave for my films and until a few years ago I was the audience as well.”

 

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There’s a lot of chatter on the internet whether to call Stree 2 a Rajkummar Rao starrer or Shraddha Kapoor starrer. Is it a female centric film, the way Shraddha’s fans would like to call it? Amar weighs in on the debate, he says, “I won’t call it a female-centric film, it is more. In the film, the female characters are stronger. We have a female saving the men in the film. Around the interval, when there is a song, a woman is gesturing to the boys to go and hide and they do so behind a bangle shop. So, I would say it is not a female-centric or a male-centric film. In my films, I try to have stronger female characters than my male characters, whether it is in Bala, Stree or Bhediya, and now Stree 2.’

“Who is the star of Stree 2. If you see our posters, the three boys are in front, with Pankaj Tripathi and Shraddha. All the five of them are the stars of this film, their characters make the film. Others will come and go, but these five will be the soul of our film. Then our technicians, they have given their 100% to the film. Everybody associated with the film is a star because each and every one of them has given their everything to the film, without even one person, the film wouldn’t be the way it has turned out,” he concludes.