Lust Stories, the Netflix anthology film that dealt with the subject of lust, attained success in 2018. The film had four short stories directed by Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap. The platform is now back with a sequel to the anthology titled Lust Stories 2. It’s produced by Ashi Dua’s Flying Unicorn Entertainment and Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP.
In an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama, Ashi Dua said that the second instalment of Lust Stories will be different than the first. “They are very different stories because there are different directors. Each director has their take on lust. Everybody has done the story in the zone they are comfortable with. Sujoy’s zone is thriller, so he has made a very thriller-ish lust story. R Balki has made a very Balki style (story). Neena Gupta’s story is with Balki. Konkona (Sen Sharma) has made a very cool film with Tillotama (Shome) and Amruta (Subhash). And Amit (Ravindernath Sharma) has made a story with Kajol and Kumud Mishra,” she said.
Ashi added, “All the directors have put their take and the stories are very different from each other. In fact, not just the stories but the worlds are also very different. Somebody’s story is very urban. And Amit’s story is in the heartland of India.”
Interestingly, the protagonist’s in all four stories in Lust Stories 2 are women. “Weirdly, even in our first Lust Stories, all the protagonists were females, whether it was Manisha Koirala, Kiara Advani, Radhika Apte or Bhumi (Pednekar),” she said. “Even in this, somehow my protagonists, whether it’s Tammannaah, Mrunal Thakur, Kajol, Neena Gupta or Tillotama, they are all females. Of course, there is Vijay Varma who has a great role. But they are led by females.”
When you have such a long list of actors, it becomes a challenge to bring all of them together. “The casting was a long and tedious process but a very gratifying one. We had to wait for long because everybody gives their dates at very different times. But it was interesting. Like the cast fell into place quite beautifully. We have tried to stay very authentic to the characters. We tried to cast people who are very believable in those roles,” said the producer.
Ashi Dua is glad to have started the anthology trend a decade ago. “It started with Bombay Talkies,” she said. “Then we moved to Lust Stories and then Ghost Stories.”
When asked if she has special fondness for anthologies, Ashi said, “No, it’s not like that. It just so happened that I started with it, and I started to really enjoy it. Fortunately, Lust Stories did really well, and we are able to take the franchise forward. But I am also doing a couple of other web series and a bunch of feature films, which are not anthologies. You will see them, hopefully, by the end of the year.”
Ashi is a rare person to become a producer at a young age of just 24. Sharing the reason for taking the plunge so early in life, she said, “I wanted to be able to produce films myself. I didn’t want to depend and wait endlessly on other people giving me projects to produce. I started the production house because Bombay Talkies happened, and it was the first film I started with.”
Ashi told us that production comes with its set of challenges, be it the cast, funding, etc. “But that is the whole nature of filmmaking,” she said. “We all strive for the end result. No matter how long it takes, the gratification that you get when you see the end product, it’s so huge that you are willing to take the entire pain that comes with it making a project happen.”
Lust Stories will stream on Netflix from June 29.
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