‘Stree’s horror universe expands with Bhediya. Will Roohi join in?

Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao-starrer ‘Stree’, released in 2018, was quite a hit at the box office, popularising the horror-comedy genre. Six years later, the makers recently announced the much awaited Part 2 of the film. The original cast, including Shraddha, Rajkummar, Abhishek Banerjee, Aparshakti Khurana and Pankaj Tripathi are going to be seen in the sequel as well, which is set to release in August this year. As per the latest update, Varun Dhawan is going to be seen playing a special role in this film and is likely to essay the character of Bhediya in it.

At an Amazon event to announce Part 2 of the film, Varun Dhawan wanted producer Dinesh Vijan to bring all characters from his comedy-horror series – ‘Stree’, ‘Roohi’, and ‘Bhediya’ – in this film and create a horror universe with ‘Stree 2’. While Dinesh did not reveal much about this plan, director Amar Kaushik, who had directed the first part as well, revealed, “We are thinking on something like this, but we have not worked out any details as yet. But it can happen.”

Speaking about ‘Stree 2’, Dinesh said, “It is a special film and it has put us on a world map. Pankaj ji has become my lucky mascot. Shraddha is also coming back with our production of this film. I think it will all come together and we should give a small teaser of it. Bhediya will have a role in ‘Stree 2’, and then this time around, we are going to introduce a master villain.”

After the success of ‘Stree’, Dinesh, under his Maddock Films, produced the next comedy-horror movie, ‘Roohi’, which featured Janhvi Kapoor in a double role, along with Rajkummar Rao and Varun Sharma. The film was directed by Hardik Mehta and the story revolved around brides getting abducted during their honeymoon much like ‘Stree’s first part, where men would be kidnapped by Stree. The next film in this horror world created by Dinesh was ‘Bhediya’, featuring Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon, Abhishek Banerjee, Deepak Dobriyal and others. This film is said to have been inspired by a legend in Meghalaya. It was about a shape shifting werewolf who is ready to do anything to protect the jungle. ‘Bhediya’, too, was directed by Amar Kaushik.

Unlike ‘Stree’, ‘Roohi’ and ‘Bhediya’ received mixed reactions from the audiences. While Varun revives his Bhediya role in ‘Stree 2’, it remains to be seen whether Janhvi, too, will make an appearance as Roohi in this film.

The story of ‘Stree 2’ begins in Chanderi a few years after the events of ‘Stree’. This time around, the audience will get to see that the town is facing a new threat. As in the first part, Vicky and his group of friends band together again as the town’s saviours. ‘Stree 2’ is co-produced by Maddock and Jio Studios.