Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, Welcome To The Jungle, Stree 2, Singham Again, Pushpa 2 - The Rule, Metro...In Dino and now, Raid 2 — newer instalments of many film franchises have been announced for the year ahead. By betting on the familiar instead of exploring new territory, are makers playing it safe or raising the stakes even higher?

“Franchise ki popularity achhi baat bhi hai aur buri bhi,” says filmmaker Anees Bazmee, who will helm BB3. He elaborates, “Ek film ka itna goodwill hai, uske liye pyaar hai, so makers feel more people will go and watch it. On the other hand, maintaining curiosity among people for films today is very tough. The problem with franchises is that the audience goes in with a lot of expectations that the film must be good like the previous one. So, it’s a challenge for the makers [to meet expectations].”

This is true for everyone involved in the particular franchise. Actor Abhishek Banerjee, who will reprise his role as Janna in Stree 2, feels the pressure of this “added responsibility”. He says, “The character is loved by people. So, of course, the pressure is high.”

In some ways, the trend can be seen as a spillover from last year, with sequels of commercial successes like OMG, Dream Girl, Gadar and Drishyam releasing and doing good business.

For trade expert Atul Mohan, this inclination signals an overall decline in makers’ risk-taking abilities. “Daring aaj kal kam ho gayi hai industry mein. New writers keep going from pillar-to-post with their stories, but nobody is ready to listen to them,” he says, adding, “Aaj ke time pe log experiment nahin karna chahte. Everyone feels, ‘There’s already this popular film, let’s just make that’. They think the recall value will be more, so they won’t have to put in effort to establish a new brand. [For instance,] Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 worked, so [they think] it’ll be simple to market the third instalment. Raid was popular, so instead of picking a story and announcing it as a new film, the makers decided to announce it as Raid 2 since it was on a similar theme.”