Director Shoojit Sircar’s films have been loved by audiences — right from Vicky Donor (2012) and Madras Café (2013) to October (2018). And the filmmaker reveals that, naturally, people expect him to make sequels to them.

However, he has no such plans, despite being offered big amounts of money by makers. “You need to have a powerful story to do that (make sequels). I think, more or less, we’ve tried to put everything in that one film, so I don’t know what is left for the second film. I also get bored with the same idea, so I need to move on. I have been offered big money to make sequels to more or less all my films — Piku (2015), even Madras Café. People ask me for the next part of Pink (2016). But I have not found any story to move ahead and make a sequel,” explains the director, whose last release was Sardar Udham.

While actors and filmmakers tend to have multiple projects in different stages of production at any given point in time, it’s not the case with Sircar.

Admitting that he has no next project in mind, he says, “I am not a factory that I will keep churning out films. I am studying, doing gardening, playing football, and doing a lot of thinking and discussing. Let’s see what comes out.”

And what happens in a scenario where a good idea doesn’t come to him for years at a stretch? Is he willing to wait that long just for a good subject? Sircar replies in the affirmative.

“At the end of the day, art is an expression. It comes from pure passion, so it is not just my livelihood. Yes, I am dependent on it, but I am not doing all this because I have to churn out films and make sure it (livelihood) is running. It is purely what drives me. Only when it triggers me do I move, otherwise I don’t,” he concludes.