Nowadays, wherever Aparshakti Khurana goes, he is asked to sing a lullaby. Sounds odd? Blame it on Stree 2. In a hilarious sequence in the horror comedy, Khurana’s character Bittu sings a lullaby to his lover. “People are requesting me to sing Soft Chitti, warm Chitti,” he laughs. Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor’s sequel to Stree (2018) has taken the box office by storm, and Khurana couldn’t be prouder.

“Despite there being no big star in Stree 2, the audience believed it deserved these numbers, their love and respect. This is the victory of content, our writer Niren Bhatt, director Amar Kaushik, the makers and the actors. It’s great to be in a space where you get accepted without any star value,” he states.

There has been an amusing online discourse around who should be credited for Stree 2’s success. A section of the audience believes it should be attributed to Rao, while another feels the film belongs to Kapoor. Where does Khurana stand on this?

“Sometimes, things begin trending [online] without any reason. For instance, Boycott Bollywood. Why boycott Bollywood? What did Bollywood do? I think it’s everybody’s film.”

The friendship between Bittu, Rao’s Vicky and Abhishek Banerjee’s Janaa has been a highlight of the franchise. It’s not restricted to the screen. Khurana says the bond with his co-stars supported him as he shot Stree 2 after his father P Khurana’s demise.

“It was the first film I shot after losing Papa. That was difficult for me because I used to regularly call and tell him about my scripts and my day at shoot. Amar, Raj, Abhishek and I are friends before collaborators. Raj and I worked out to devotional songs during Stree 2.”

Stree 2’s end hinted at the next offering in the horror comedy universe—Vampires of Vijay Nagar, starring Ayushmann Khurrana. There are high chances of a crossover with the world of Stree, which will mark the first on-screen collaboration of the two brothers.

“I’m more than looking forward to that. For a while, we were looking to pick up a script where we could be together. Let’s see how and when we can be together in this universe,” he smiles.