Niren Bhatt, the screenwriter of Rajkummar Rao-Shraddha Kapoor starrer Stree 2, talked about what went behind conceiving Sarkata, the main antagonist in the film.
Rajkummar Rao-Shraddha Kapoor’s latest release Stree 2 has set the box office on fire. So far, the horror comedy has emerged as the sixth highest grossing Hindi film of all times and continues to receive love from the cinegoers. There is no doubt that the film has created a different level of euphoria and a big chunk of credit for this goes to Niren Bhatt’s clever writing.
In an interview with Indian Express, the screenwriter spilled the beans on how they conceived the character of Sarkata, the main antagonist in the film.
Bhatt told the publication, “That was the starting point. If you remember there’s a cave in part one, where they cut the braid of Stree. Inside the caves, there are some murals and in one of them, Stree’s headless lover is shown. We didn’t know if it was by accident, or whether it was headless because these are old statues. From there we thought, we could use this and take it forward. If he’s Stree’s lover, he’s the victim and can’t be the villain.”
He continued, “Then we thought when the prostitute became a witch, the first thing she would do was kill the person who chopped the head off her lover! We thought what if that guy is the powerful chief of Chanderi, which derives its name from his name Chandraban. That’s how it all fall into place.”
The writer said that he and the makers didn’t want to take visual references from the West and wanted to come up with an original creation.
Bhatt was quoted as saying, “Sarkata is not the headless horseman from Sleepy Hollow, which everyone has seen. So we thought Sarkata would use his head as his weapon, which would bounce like a ball. The head has the mind, and the body follows it. We started thinking out-of-the-box for everything.”
Further, he also explained why he felt it was important for them to establish in the film why Sarkata was coming after Stree.
“When we decided who would be the head of the town, it was important to establish why he was coming after Stree. He was a debauch, who would watch ‘mujra‘ and go to the extent of even killing people in love. He was an arrogant patriarchal man. When Pankaj Tripathi reads Chanderi puraan, it’s written how for him, the woman must do the dishes, wash clothes and when the man desires, sleep with him. He only saw them as a tool. So, when he abducts women and keeps them in his parallel world, they’re in white saree, bald, standing mute like mannequins. There’s no agency,” he explained.
In the same interview, Niren Bhatt also shared why they haven’t revealed the name of Shraddha Kapoor‘s character in the horror comedy.
He revealed, “We have an idea, a plan but it might change, and we might name her something else. What we were sure of was that we won’t reveal it in Stree 2. It was a good hook to end on.”
The writer also elaborated a bit on Akshay Kumar’s cameo in Stree 2 and said, ” His character was supposed to be the descendant of Sarkata. But Akshay wasn’t there. Amar met him and Akshay was convinced after he read his scene and loved the overall story. He is displaying his classic straight-faced humour.”
Helmed by Amar Kaushik, Stree 2 features Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana and Abhishek Banerjee in pivotal roles.
