Rajkummar Rao didn’t expect ‘content-driven film’ Stree 2 to cross ₹500 crore worldwide: ‘Way above our expectations’
Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor’s horror-comedy Stree 2 entered the ₹500 crore club globally after 10 days in theatres.
In a new interview with News18, Rajkummar opened up about the film’s box office success, admitting he did not expect the ‘content-driven film’ to do as well as it has been doing.
‘Glad and super elated’
He said, “We were sure that the film (Stree 2) would get lot of love because of the love that Stree 1 got. There’s a big fan-following for Stree, including me. I am a huge fan of Stree myself. But these numbers are way above our expectations. We are glad and super elated. There’s a lot of gratitude that this is happening with a film like Stree, because it is content-driven film.”
‘I have come from nowhere’
Rajkummar added, “There’s a lot of gratitude. God has been really kind. I have got a lot of love from the audience and they have accepted me for who I am. I have come from nowhere. I come from a very humble beginning. I didn’t grow up with money around me. I am one of their [audience’s] own. A lot of messages I get say that it feels like a personal victory, which is overwhelming.”
Rajkummar also said that his journey in films ‘wasn’t easy, it was tough’. The actor opened up about his theatre days in Delhi, where, sometimes, he didn’t have enough money to take the state transport, so, he would ‘cycle 70km up and down’. Then, after coming to Mumbai post FTII (Film and Television Institute of India), he struggled ‘to survive’ in the ‘expensive city’, adding he didn’t know anyone, ‘where to start, who to meet’.
Stree 2 box office
Directed by Amar Kaushik, the sequel to Stree (2018) brings back the original star cast of Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Abhishek Banerjee, Pankaj Tripathi, and Aparshakti Khurana.
On Sunday, the makers Maddock Films shared the film’s latest box office numbers – according to them, the Independence Day 2024 release has now grossed more than ₹500 crore worldwide. They said that Stree 2 had grossed ₹505 worldwide after 10 days – it’s India gross stood at ₹426 crore, while overseas gross was ₹78.5 crore.
More about the film
While Stree revolved around a female ghost, who was wronged in her mortal life, its follow-up focuses on a headless villain called Sarkata with a connection to the eponymous character. Stree 2 follows Sarkata abducting women with an independent voice. In one of the key scenes in Stree 2, Sarkata demolishes the statue of Stree, the guardian of Chanderi, to declare the beginning of his reign.