Awarapan 2 writer Bilal Siddiqi finds learnings in criticism of Emraan Hashmi-starrer: 'No one has an invalid opinion'
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
Awarapan 2, the new movie starring Emraan Hashmi , has been lapped by audiences. In six days at the ticket window, the sequel has grossed over ₹ 150 crore rupees worldwide. Yet, its critical reception has not been as grand. In a chat with Hindustan Times, the movie’s writer Bilal Siddiqi reflects on the reaction and how he is treating the critique.
Adding to this, Bilal Siddiqi, the co-writer of Awarapan 2, talks about the movie's reception. ‘There is a tonal shift in the movie’ Bilal was a school-going pre-teen when the first Awarapan rolled out in 2007. He confesses he is a fan, but adds that this did not hinder him from writing the sequel. “This movie didn't actually require me to detach completely as a fan, because there were moments built for followers, such as callbacks to dialogue from the first movie. So those were what the fan in me would want to see,” he says.
Meanwhile, But the writer explains that Awarapan 2 has a different tone compared with the first part. “When Vishesh (Bhatt, the producer) and I sat down to brainstorm this, we knew we needed to bring back the themes from part one while making it contemporary. Also, I think there's a slight shift in the movie's tonality, driven solely by the urgency of the inciting incident. In part one, it was a slow-burn thriller because the man had already lost someone, and he was living as a shell. In this movie, he didn't want to lose again. Not wanting to lose again comes with a sense of urgency,” he adds.
Notably, The box-office success has shown the audiences are loving the movie, but the critics have been harsher. On review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a lowly approval rating of 45%. Many critics have compared it unfavourably to the first part, which was widely lauded. Bilal admits he is ‘looking at everything’. Bilal adds, “It's not like anyone has an invalid opinion. I'm reading everything and hoping to learn something from it. It’s my first movie, after all. There are some people who probably prefer part one because of the way they approached the screenplay and the time it took to build up. But they also have to understand that this movie, as I shared earlier, is a slightly different approach to advancing the character. Overall, I think a large number of people have liked it.”
As per the latest buzz, Bilal is happy about the audience’s reaction to the movie. He informs he watched the movie at Gaiety Galaxy in Mumbai a day after its rollout, with the general audience. “Till then, I'd only seen the movie in the edit room with Vishesh and the director (Nitin Kakkar) and Emraan. But, when I finally got to see the movie in Gaiety Galaxy on Saturday night, it felt like a stadium, and that was really fun to see,” he says. “That felt like real validation because you just saw them cheering at every line the way you intended. You'd see every scene get the response you hoped it would get while writing it. So those things were extremely validating.”
In further updates, Awarapan 2 also stars Disha Patani, Shabana Azmi, Puran Gabbi, Suvinder Vicky, Vijayant Kohli, and Atul Kumar in key roles. Directed by Nitin Kakkar, the movie has collected ₹ 113 crore rupees net domestically and ₹ 161 crore rupees gross worldwide.
On top of that, Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Movie Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world. Read More
Source: Hindustan Times