‘With Awarapan 2, I wanted to reclaim the box office failure of the first film’: Vishesh Bhatt

Nineteen years after Mohit Suri’s 2007 action romance Awarapan failed to make a dent at the box office, producer Vishesh Bhatt was confident that would change with the sequel, Awarapan 2. While Emraan Hashmi reprises his iconic role of Shivam Pandit, Bilal Siddiqi takes over from Shagufta Rafique as the screenwriter, and Nitin Kakkar from Mohit Suri as the director. In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, Vishesh discusses why he decided to make a sequel despite the first film’s failure, why Suri didn’t return to helm the film, and his terms with uncle and mentor Mahesh Bhatt despite the latter’s fallout with the former’s father, Mukesh Bhatt