Sequel fever grips Bollywood

The season of sequels is upon us. Besides the sequel to ABCD we have Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroop which is already 10 percent complete and Neeraj Pandey’s Special Chabbis 2 which would be launched very shortly. Prabhu Deva who now has the unequalled track record of being a superstar choreographer, dancer, filmmaker and actor in Tamil and Hindi, is torn between directing his next film Rambo Rajkumar with Shahid Kapoor and working on the sequel to the new dance film ABCD. Now that Anybody Can Dance, aka ABCD has opened favourably, UTV and director Remo d’Souza are keen to start a sequel. The only hitch is Prabhu Deva’s choc-a-block schedule. Ever since the dancing maverick moved to Mumbai he has been inundated with assignments as director, choreographer and now actor. Prabhu says he is not in the position to start the ABCD sequel right away. “We’re all overwhelmed by the response to ABCD. On Friday I visited some theatres. I had these young Mumbai crowds showing their love and respect. It felt good to find acceptance among the younger lot. I’d love to carry the story forward. But we all have to find the time. I am committed to direct two back-to-back films immediately after I complete Tips’ Ramaiyya Vastavaiya which is 90 percent done. In fact a day after the release of ABCD I’m back shooting Ramaiyya Vastavaiya.” Prabhu says he never expected this kind of response to ABCD. “We all worked hard on it. K K Menon, me, Ganesh Acharya, all the boys and girls who have danced in the film. Most of all, Remo ...the film is his vision and his interpretation. I blindly did he what he asked me to.” It was a conscious decision to not allow Prabhu Deva to dance throughout the film, as that would have deflected attention from the young dancers. “We were very clear that I’d dance for a limited time while the focus for the rest of the film would be on the kids,” says Prabhu. Incidentally, K K Menon’s role was to be played by Javed Jaffri who apparently chickened out because he didn’t want his dancing skills to be compared with the iconic Prabhu Deva. Would Javed be seen in ABCD 2?