Excel Entertainment head Ritesh Sidhwani on the successful year that was 2017 and plans for 2018
MUMBAI MIRROR (December 26, 2017)

You began 2017 with the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Raees, followed by Inside Edge and now Fukrey Returns. How has the year been for you?
It’s gratifying to see that you had a film like Raees where you take a big superstar like Shah Rukh Khan and make him do something that is so different from what he has done before. It makes you feel good about the fact that you tried to do something different and it paid off. Then we stepped into a different medium with Inside Edge, which has done extremely well too. I have been told that it’s in the top 2 or 3 most downloaded shows and in the completion rate, where people began watching the show and saw the entire season. Amazon was impressed, which is why for the first time we are commissioning season 2 and 3 simultaneously. We are shooting both the seasons in 2018, though it will be released at a gap of 6 to 8 months.

Fukrey Returns also did well at the box office…
Fukrey was a sleeper hit in 2013 and people had lapped it up on TV as well, because of which its reach had amplified many folds. I think it’s amazing to see so much love for a small film, which has gone on to make such big numbers.

There is a lot of pressure on sequels to live up to the original. What challenges did you face while making Fukrey Returns?
Interestingly, after its theatrical run, when Fukrey had released on TV, I got a lot of messages on my social media platforms wanting to know what happened with Bholi and the other parts. I spoke with Mrig (Mrighdeep Lamba, director-writer) and Vipul (Vipul Vig, writer) to think about a sequel. When they came back with the story, we were very impressed.

Is a third part on the cards too?
You will be amazed to know how many people on Twitter and Instagram have sent me story ideas for the third part. Though I haven’t had the time to sit with the writers, we would definitely like to take the franchise forward.

The Fukrey merchandise including comic books, phone covers and t-shirts too have created immense buzz…
Yes, in fact, I recently got a message from the Shoppers Stop team for placing an additional order.

What should we expect from the upcoming seasons of Inside Edge?
In season 1, there is an interesting character called Bhai Saab, what we do with him will be revealed in the next season. Karan Anshuman won’t be directing the upcoming seasons as he is busy with another web series called Mirzapur that features Ali Fazal and Vikrant Massey and is also running our writers room.

So on the digital front, what’s next for 2018?
We have a few shows planned already. Besides Mirzapur, we also have Made In Heaven, which is created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti and will be helmed by interesting directors including Zoya, Alankrita Shrivastava, Nitya Mehra and Prashant Nair.

And what are the films slated for the next year?
The first one is 3 Storeys, which releases in February, then there is Gold on August 15 with Akshay Kumar. We also have Gully Boy with Zoya who will start filming from January 14 with Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. Ranveer is amazing to work with and has terrific energy, while this is our first collaboration with Alia. We’ll be announcing the rest of the cast by next week.

Is Don 3 in the making too?
We are definitely going to make Don 3. Earlier if you had asked me, I would have said no, but now we do have an idea and we are working towards it. Shah Rukh will obviously be a part of the film, but we’ll zero down on the rest of the cast after the script is locked.