Killing two birds with one big stone — can Bollywood sequels crack it?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For big-budget Hindi films, the real payoff increasingly hinges on whether a first hit can sustain a second.

Ranveer Singh’s action film Dhurandhar has cracked box office gold in India, making over ₹538 crore at last count, and industry experts say the filmmakers who spent around ₹300 crore on two instalments, are likely to reap even greater benefits with the release of the second part, due in March—while the buzz around the first is still fresh. Indian filmmakers have often tried to release two parts to what they plan as a big-budget film franchise in quick succession, shooting much of the material together in an attempt to economize marketing and production costs, besides encashing brand value and audience familiarity.

However, the formula has thrown up mixed results: while the two Baahubali films recovered their ₹400 crore plus budget setting box office benchmarks, sequels planned to Ranbir Kapoor’s Brahmastra haven’t been taken to the floors yet, since the first part wasn’t deemed profitable enough. Currently, the makers of Kalki 2898 AD are putting together a second part, with the Hindi version alone having earned nearly ₹300 crore.

It was made on a budget of ₹600 crore, with some portions of the second part already in place. “The second part always benefits from the success of the first, but the basic idea is that the story has to lend itself to a franchise where more than one film can be shot together or released in quick succession," Rahul Puri, managing director of Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas said.

While many times, not both parts are equally big in scale and grandeur, what the strategy does is create a world for the film, Puri added. For example, Baby, a spy thriller