Rajkumar Gupta on why Raid 2 needed to be different from part 1, Riteish Deshmukh and Ajay Devgn's face-off | Interview

Raid 2 stars Ajay Devgn and Riteish Deshmukh in the lead roles. The film has grossed ₹169 crore worldwide.

Ajay Devgn-starrer Raid 2 has had a great run at the box office, crossing ₹125 crore in just under two weeks. The film also earned praise from fans and critics alike. HT spoke to the film's director, Rajkumar Gupta, about how the sequel came together, and what all needed to fall in place for it.

Raid 2 stars Ajay Devgn and Riteish Deshmukh in the lead roles.

How Raid 2 came together

Gupta says that it took over a year just to lock the story for Raid 2. "When you make a part 1, you just want people to like it. Then, it happened. People loved it. At that point, we were not thinking we would make another part right away. But at some point, after hearing stories, we felt it would be interesting to take this character forward. That's when we chanced upon this idea. But we still had to bring the right story. Then my writers got together, and it took us just one year to crack the story," he explains.

Raid, the 2016 film, was based on a true story, and introduced the character of IRS officer Amey Patnaik (played by Ajay Devgn). The sequel is influenced by a number of real incidents, but has a fair share of creative liberty attached to it. Rajkumar Gupta calls the difference intentional. He says, “This time, apart from the story being inspired by various incidents, we also wanted to include fictional elements to see how it gels. That's how the world of Raid 2 came about. It was part-real-life and part fictional.”

Rajkumar Gupta has directed both Raid and Raid 2.

The differences between the two films

However, the director says he wasn't just being different for the sake of being different. The story and treatment required it. "The first Raid was inward. It was confined to one space. 70-80% of it was shot in that one house. It took me almost two months to find that house because I needed to see how I could shoot those scenes in a confined space. This time, things were different. The emotion would be the same, and the character's arc will be similar but still different," says the filmmaker.

Riteish Deshmukh vs Ajay Devgn

Raid 2 also stars Riteish Deshmukh as the antagonist, a politician who goes toe-to-toe with Ajay's character. "The character needed to be cast well, because he has to go up against someone like Ajay Devgn. So, I needed someone with gravitas," says Gupta, adding, "The challenge for the director is to show him as a human being, who can be evil. But he is not just a cardboard character. That is what we saw in Tauji (Saurabh Shukla in Raid) and with Riteish's character (in Raid 2)."

Raid 2 also stars Vaani Kapoor, Rajat Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Supriya Pathak, and Amit Sial. The film is currently running in theatres. It has collected ₹125 crore in India and ₹169 crore worldwide in 12 days.