Ahead of The Storyteller’s première on Disney+ Hotstar on January 29, director Ananth Mahadevan had rued that he would’ve liked to see the Paresh Rawal and Adil Hussain-starrer play out on the big screen (‘One producer didn’t know who Satyajit Ray was’, Jan 24). Today, the director is elated at the warm reception his drama—an adaptation of Satyajit Ray’s short story, Golpo Boliye Tarini Khuro—is receiving. Encouraged by the response, Mahadevan has decided to make a second instalment that will see Rawal reprise the role of Tarini Khuro.

Mahadevan reveals that he has reached out to Ray’s son, Sandeep Ray, who had granted him the adaptation rights of The Storyteller. “A few days ago, I wrote to Sandip Ray, saying that he must have heard about the acclaim that the film is getting. I told him I’d like to make another movie on Tarini Khuro. Satyajit Ray had written lots of stories. People have found The Storyteller a relief from the edgy, violent cinema of today. That positive response made Paresh and me think of extending it. I’ve ordered the last available [book] of Tarini Khuro’s stories,” grins the director, eager to take the character on another adventure.

To Mahadevan, the audience’s love for The Storyteller is a marker of how “sensible content” will always attract eyeballs. It has also shown him that viewers are willing to invest in a story.

The director asserts, “This is the awakening of the audience and recognizing what cinema is. I was found guilty by many of making slow-paced movies. But with the audience waking up to [the power of] storytelling, they have interpreted it differently. I cannot [adopt] a James Bond pace in The Storyteller. The script dictates the pace.”