Nayak sequel? Anil Kapoor has an idea: Shankar

Back in 2001, when Nayak: The Real Hero released, the Anil Kapoor-starrer’s subject resonated strongly with audiences. In fact, for the past couple of years, there has been a lot of talk about a sequel to the Shankar-directed social drama. Now, the film-maker tells us that Kapoor “has an idea” about Nayak 2.

“Yes, he has spoken to me. Anil sir told me that he has some idea [about the sequel] but since I was committed to 2.0, I couldn’t take our conversation ahead at that time. If Nayak 2’s story evolves the way Indian 2’s script developed, I will surely do it. See, after Indian 2, I will go ahead with whichever story – Nayak 2 or 2.0 – evolves naturally,” says Shankar. The Robot director, who starts work on the Kamal Haasanstarrer Indian 2 this month, says he has “other stories too”. He adds: “Whichever story hits me hard at the completion of Indian 2, I will go for that one.”

Ask Shankar if – after 2.0 – 3.0 is also on the cards and he says: “[Indian] audiences have always liked franchises such as Superman, Batman and SpiderMan. Now, they have started to love our superheroes as well. As an audience, even I would like to see the new film [of Robot series]. But we shouldn’t do the new instalment just for the sake of doing it. I will wait for the story to evolve. If I get a good story, then I may go for part 3 also.”

Shankar’s latest offering 2.0 features Akshay Kumar alongside Rajinikanth. Ask him if the exchange of talent between north and south film industries is a great thing, and he says: “It’s fantastic. Even in my previous films, I roped in costume designers and hair stylists besides other technical crew and actors from Mumbai. Vis-à-vis 2.0, my VFX guy is from Andhra Pradesh, so I have technicians and actors from all over India.”

Not just Indian cast and crew, 2.0 makers roped in international technicians as well. “So in a way, it broadens our horizons to other countries too since it is a ‘global’ project. It may release in China as well, and possibly in English too as we might dub it in the future. I feel in the coming days, it won’t be about north, south, India and even US, UK or Europe. If people from Iran, Poland and Ukraine are working on a movie then the world is like a small village,” says Shankar.

PHOTO: YOGEN SHAH Anil Kapoor

PHOTO: PRODIP GUHA Shankar