Abhishek Banerjee had double the reason to celebrate this Independence Day as two of his films, Stree 2 and Vedaa, released on the same day. While Stree 2 went on to become a blockbuster, Vedaa faltered at the box office. Talking about the clash, the actor says, “It’s a bittersweet experience for me right now.”

Adding further, Banerjee says, “Vedaa is a great film and whoever has watched it, they loved it. The opening day was good, and we got great reviews. But now what can we do? I am also learning, and the producers would have made their calculations, but it didn’t work out that way. Yet Vedaa is still sustaining and not really washed out as some people thought it would. Stree 2 has brought people back to theatres and that’s important. Now, they would want more, and they might come to see Vedaa, which is already happening at quite a few places.”

Coming to Stree 2, the 39-year-old admits that the film’s level of success did come as a surprise. “While we expected the film to do well, nobody expected it to cross Rs. 50 crore on day one. It’s madness. But what’s more gladdening is when people are saying that it’s like a festival in theatres. People are lining up in queues even in urban centres. We always heard of such things happening in (actor) Amitabh Bachchan’s films, and last year with (actor) Shah Rukh Khan’s films and now it’s happening for us. It feels special,” he exclaims.

So, will we see him in a larger capacity and not just cameos in the other upcoming films of the horror universe? “I think Jana is one of the connectors for the whole universe. He is designed to be haunted and troubled by all these supernatural monsters,” he says, giving an update about the future: “Stree 3 ki thodi bahut writing ho chuki hai and they will probably start writing Bhediya 2 soon.”