Munjya, made on a budget of ₹30 crore, has hit a worldwide box-office haul of
₹130 crore, and is a bona fide sleeper hit in a year which has seen some huge Bollywood films tanking miserably. With the film, starring Sharvari and Abhay Verma in the lead, still running in theatres, a sequel in store and a potential appearance of Munjya — the monster derived from Maharashtrian culture around which the film’s primary action is built — in Stree 2 next month, t2 chatted with director Aditya Sarpotdar.

Munjya is in the Rs 100-crore club, only the fourth so far this year and the most modest in terms of budget. What are the primary emotions like as we speak?

It is the audience that has truly been the flag bearer of this film. Before its release, we hardly promoted Munjya for two-and-a-half weeks. When you have such a short promotional campaign, you really hope that the merit of the film speaks for itself and that the audience that watches the film spreads the word. The word-of-mouth promotion has been the biggest reason the film has done well. It has made us realise that a film’s promotional campaign can get you the first weekend audience, but post that, you have to have a script that has the power to pull in audiences.

For Munjya, the audience that came into the theatres in the first weekend in big numbers went out there and spoke so highly of it that it got the film bigger numbers. I can’t be more grateful that the audience truly made this film its own.

The success of Munjya is a big relief for the Hindi film industry. What does it mean to you personally?

A lot of young filmmakers have reached out and told me that the huge success of Munjya gives them more confidence to make films because they have good scripts but not big actors. I am so glad that Munjya, in its own way, has been able to empower so many filmmakers to take that mental leap.

I was also very overwhelmed when I got a lot of phone calls from single-screen theatre owners in small towns — the B and C centres, so to speak — saying that they were barely surviving earlier, but that Munjya has got them the footfalls that will now enable them to sustain. That this film has allowed so many theatres to revive themselves after a big slump is huge. It makes me happy and proud.

And this in a year when so many big-budget films with big names have bitten the dust...

This year, we have mid-budget films that took off initially at the box office, but unlike Munjya, they weren’t able to sustain the momentum. For example, Madgaon Express (directed by actor Kunal Kemmu) was an interesting film that was loved by the audience but somehow it could not make it beyond the Rs 50-crore mark.

For us, that was the benchmark. When we put Munjya out there, we felt that even if it does as much as Madgaon Express, it will be more than enough. But what our film has done has been exceptional and phenomenal.

The takeaway is that people are not looking at cinema as big film or small film. People are not looking at films in terms of their budget or their star power. People want to watch good films, they want to have fun and they want to enjoy a clean film with the entire family. In my visits to theatres, I have consistently seen big numbers coming from family units. Groups of four, eight or 12 and huge extended families are coming in because they all believe that this is a film that everyone can watch together. Nowadays, very rarely do you have films that an entire family — from a young boy to the grandparents — can enjoy together.

Munjya worked because it had the nostalgic pull of the Stree horror-comedy universe and also had the ability to pull in audiences as a standalone film. Would you agree?

This question reminds me of an incident when I was on my way to the first day of shoot for Munjya. My producer Dinesh Vijan (of Maddock Films) called me and said: ‘I trust that you have a film on paper that has the capacity to do the (box office) numbers that Stree did, that has the capacity to surprise the audience the way Stree did. So give it your best shot and let’s see if this happens’.

Munjya has now been running for a month in theatres and what he told me, I see that happening every day. It all comes down to the fact that a film that is made with all heart, with a lot of confidence and with a really strong script will work. And if the producer and the director together believe in their film from the first moment till the end, they will invariably have a winner.

When a standalone film like Munjya built in a huge horror-comedy universe like this does well, then it makes that universe bigger. When I stood in the audience during a show of Munjya and saw people screaming, hooting and clapping in the end-credits scene when Varun Dhawan comes in as ‘Bhediya’ (which is also part of the same universe), it gave me so much joy.

Munjya has set up the right ambience for Stree 2 (releasing on August 15) and Stree 2, in turn, will set up the right ambience for the next film in this horror-comedy universe to follow. It is very exciting.

What do you think makes this genre such a favourite right now?

I think this genre lends itself only to the theatrical viewing space. We enjoy those films where a packed audience collectively gasps at a scare or collectively laughs at a joke. We look forward to such collective viewing experiences, whether it is a film, an event or a sport.

Also, horror-comedies like Munjya that are derived from folklore have huge potential and I am surprised we haven’t made many of them yet. Such stories are local, regional and relatable and yet have a hyperreal quality to them.

This genre, in my opinion, also works because you can surprise the audience — you can set them up for a scare and then suddenly switch to a laugh. It is tricky but if you can pull it off, there is nothing like it.

What is the future of Munjya and what is the future for you apart from Munjya?

The future of Munjya would definitely be a sequel. The character could make an appearance in the next film in the franchise (Stree 2) and that is something very exciting to look forward to.

I have just had a release with another horror-comedy called Kakuda (playing on Zee5). There is a film called Vampires of Vijayanagar (starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Rashmika Mandanna) which has just been announced, and which I am directing. It is in the same horror-comedy universe as Stree, Bhediya and Munjya.