Sagar Ballary in 'Bheja Fry 2'

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Sagar Ballary in 'Bheja Fry 2' on Buzzinebollywood.com

FILM INTERVIEW: SAGAR BALLARY

Director Picks Up Sequel Where Original Began; Not Sure If a Trilogy Is in Order

By: Simran Mody
June 16, 2011

Bheja Fry 2 on buzzinebollywood.comBollywood filmmaker Sagar Ballary is a big fan of Kishore Kumar and stormed through his debut film, Bheja Fry, in 90 days. Professionally trained as a filmmaker at Kolkata’s Satyajit Film Training School, Mr. Ballary firmly believes a good movie is a good movie, whether or not it is an original or a sequel. All that being said, Mr. Ballary never considered Bheja Fry to be a franchise title. Instead, he originally thought the first film -- starring Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Sarika, and Tom Alter (Cycle Kick) -- would be a one-and-done production. Alas, here he is with the bigger budget sequel, Bheja Fry 2, which opens on June 17th and stars Mr. Pathak, Kay Kay Menon, Minissha Lamba, Suresh Menon, and Amole Gupte.

 
Sequels may be a rather common phenomenon in Bollywood, but Mr. Ballary did not really see beyond the first Bheja Fry. He confessed to creating the sequel only because of market demands, not because he viewed Bheja Fry as a franchised product.
 
“I am, right now, in a situation where lots of people are doing it and looking at it as a franchise to make sequels. But Bheja Fry 2 is not a franchise by choice; it is a franchise by demand,” Ballary confessed to the media.
 
Of course, in bringing the sequel, Mr. Ballary wanted to make Part Two more memorable than the first. Accordingly, he hopes audiences will fall in love with the charmingly colorful character, Bharat Bhutan (Mr. Pathak), who brings a lot of fun and excitement to the film.
 
Still, the filmmaker who discovered his passion for writing during his childhood and eventually chased his Bollywood dreams is not entirely sure he wants to come back for Bheja Fry 3.
 
“At this point in time, we are not even thinking of Part Three. Our focus is on Part Two,” Mr. Ballary told the Indian media. “We very well realize that it is not a golden goose which should be cut into and all the eggs should be taken.”
 
While it is indeed safe to not count one’s chicks before they hatch, Mr. Ballary believes audiences will love Bheja Fry 2 as much as they loved the original, and that may actually bode well for the title’s future prospects as an enduring franchise.
 
“We are trying to make a simple, vulnerable, true, honest film,” he informed the press. “The subject and the title itself has become a franchise.”
 
Opening worldwide on June 17th, Bheja Fry 2 chronicles the story of Bharat, a tax inspector who yearns to be a crooner and seeks out a famed career as an olive-voiced singer. A continuation of the storyline already established in the 2007 original, Bheja Fry 2 features a bigger budget and a larger, more star-studded cast. Mr. Ballary hopes the film, which was shot in Malaysia, will continue to deliver slapstick jokes and laugh-out-loud comedy.
 
After Bheja Fry 2, Mr. Ballary will reportedly be moving on to Hum Tum Aur Shabana, which features Tushar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, and Minisha Lamba. The upcoming comedy will include heavy doses of masala.