Ajay Devgn's 'Raid 2' director Rajkumar Gupta on part three: 'Saurabh Shukla and Riteish Deshmukh have met in jail now and...'

First Post

12-05-2025

Talking about the same, director Rajkumar Gupta spoke exclusively to Firstpost and spilled the beans on the responses and the idea of Raid 3 read more
Ajay Devgn and Riteish Deshmukh's Raid 2 has crossed the Rs 100 crore mark and is now a commercial success. Talking about the same, director Rajkumar Gupta spoke exclusively to Firstpost and spilled the beans on the responses and the idea of Raid 3 as well.
Edited excerpts from the interview
What are the responses that you have received for Raid 2 so far?
I think it's been brilliant. As you can see from the box office numbers as well, people have been coming and watching the film and appreciating the film, so we are all happy about it.
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So, what were your box office expectations when it was about to launch?
I think here, you know, in terms of numbers, it is very difficult for me to say. Difficult in the sense, you know, the thing is that we try and make a film and hope that that audience likes it, you know. And that was the first attempt to make a good film so that the audience likes it. And box office expectation is, I mean, you want your film to work and you know when the film works, the audience will come.
Also, I want to ask you that there is a gap of 7 years between the two films. So, when did you feel that this is a story that can be taken ahead and yes, this is a character that can have another story?
I think, you know, when we made the first one, of course, you just wanted your films to work, you know, and it worked commercially and critically. And at that point, also, at least in my mind, I had not thought that there would be a sequel. But a couple of years down the line, we thought that, you know, that it will be interesting to see where we can take these characters but we needed a good story and it took some time for a good story to come and in 2021 when we decided to follow a story and that's when we decided to make the film and it took one, one and a half years to write the script and then shoot it and to release.
I interviewed Ritesh last year for PILL and he played such a righteous and such an honest character in that web series and now in this, you give him the role of the central antagonist. So how did this casting happen?
I think I really like him as an actor. He's a fabulous actor. We all know he's, he does, he's known for his comic films, but he's such a fabulous actor when he does antagonist as well as he has played so many, he has played protagonists in Marathi films. And when I finished Pill, I enjoyed working with each other and we told ourselves that, you know, if we have an opportunity, we'll work together again.
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So once we finished writing Raid 2 and I saw what the character of Dada Bhai was, I decided to approach him and he really liked the script and that's how and because we were doing, as you said, Pil was a different character and this was a very different character so it was really exciting to do this together.
What was your brief to Ritesh about playing this character and how was your prep for this when you were writing?
I think all of us, all the writers, Ritesh, me, Jaideep Yadav and Karan, we all know what you see in the film, that's the character we built. And there was brief, you know, as he's such a fabulous actor that once we had narrated him the script once we had spoken about the character. I think everything was on paper and he followed it. And what you see in the film is what we built together while, you know, working on the film.
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How did you decide that you have to integrate Saurabh Shukla's character in the sequel as well?
We decided to bring two, three characters back from the, two characters back from the first part. One was Tauji and one was Lallan. While you know Tauji's story was in itself, was done, we thought maybe it would be worth getting him back. For the longest time, we couldn't figure out how to get him back. But then, Ritesh, all of us, we got an idea how to get him back. And similarly, Lallan, we had decided that he was one character that could have a different arc or a journey in this story, the story that we were telling. So that's how they came about.
Amit Sial has turned out to be such a popular character from Raid 2.
He's a fabulous actor and he's been doing such good work and I have deep respect for him. In fact, in the first grade. Also, he was a very popular character. He was not as popular as Tauji but he was a character who was very popular and he had a very unique arc to his character.
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And when Amit is playing that, you know that whatever is on the paper, it will go four or five notches up. And whatever was in the paper, whatever was written, those one-liners, the way he delivered it, it really, really, really added to the film. And that's why he's such a fabulous actor.
We have seen Ajay Devgn in heroic roles like Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and Singham. How would you describe the character of Amay Patnaik?
I think that's the uniqueness of it. Ajay sir, you know, he's a superstar. He's such a fabulous actor and an intelligent actor. And he knows which character to take where. You know, he knows the difference between when he's playing a Singham or when he's doing a Drishyam or when he's doing Raid World.
So he brings in a lot of integrity, a lot of kindness, graciousness and lot of power to even a simple character, even a middle class government employee like Amai Patnaik. So it's his persona, as well as the combination of what the character is on the paper and his persona, and his skill that he's able to make this middle class person also larger than life, but still keep it in check, where he appears real.
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And in the final shot of the movie, we see Tauji and Adabhai shaking hands. So, have you cracked the idea? Is it going to be two-on-one in part three?
No, I just wrote it out of fun. One day I thought it would be a good ending shot. So that's how I just wrote it one day. I got up in the morning and I got this thing. Okay, so what if what happens? Okay, the film ends here. So what can I do? Uncle has gone back to
His parole is done. He has gone back to jail and this guy is entering jail. So dono ko ek jail mein bhej dete hain. So it was something which out of fun I had written and it came in the film. So let's see where it goes.