Acclaimed filmmaker Nagraj Manjule elevated the stature of Marathi cinema with his 2016 National Award-winning romantic tragedy ‘Sairat’, starring Rinku Rajguru and Akash Thosar. The film went on to become the highest-grossing Marathi film of all time, a record it held for nearly a decade before Raja Shivaji surpassed it earlier this year. Sairat was also remade in Hindi as ‘Dhadak’ (2018), marking Janhvi Kapoor‘s big-screen debut. Last year, the franchise expanded with ‘Dhadak 2’, starring Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri.Recently, while promoting his recently released acting venture ‘Frame’, Nagraj Manjule spoke to SCREEN about the success of ‘Sairat’ and whether he has any plans to make ‘Sairat 2’ following the release of ‘Dhadak 2’.
Nagraj Manjule on ‘Sairat’s success
During the conversation, Nagraj Manjule revealed he wrote the story of ‘Sairat’ with the simplest vision. Manjule said, “I never looked at it as a challenge. I said what I wanted to with the film. When I was writing Sairat, I was thinking that the world we see in films where people fall in love is very different from the real world. In real life, we face challenges when in love. I didn’t need to dramatize it, so I kept it the way it is. What we think always is that the love story ends with happily ever after; we don’t see the problems in it, so my vision was to show that.”Talking about the film’s success, the filmmaker said, “I never thought Sairat would be adapted by Bollywood. We just make our film. We don’t think about how much people will like it or if there will be a remake.”
Will Nagraj Manjule make ‘Sairat 2’?
Last year, Dharma Productions expanded the ‘Dhadak’ franchise with a sequel. When asked whether that had inspired him to consider making ‘Sairat 2’, Nagraj Manjule said, “Sairat 2 doesn’t need to get inspired by ‘Dhadak 2’ to be made. If there is a story, ‘Sairat 2’ will be made. I feel that the story was complete in itself, but sometimes when people like a film, they want to see what happens further in it. A lot of people still ask me when I will make a sequel to Fandry. After ‘Sairat’ came out, people forgot about it. But now they keep asking me about ‘Sairat 2.’ I feel it is a world where much can be spoken about, but I have not thought about it.”
Nagraj Manjule on the rise of Marathi cinema
Nagraj also spoke about the growth of Marathi cinema, reflecting on how the distinction between mainstream and regional cinema has evolved. His ‘Frame’ co-star Amey Wagh pointed out that Marathi cinema delivered seven hits in the first six months of 2026, adding that Sairat had “opened a door to a room full of treasure.”Sharing how Marathi cinema is growing, Nagraj said, “‘Raja Shivaji’ and ‘Deool Band 2’ have crossed Rs 100 crore. A couple of other films earned around Rs 30-40 crore. So, what is counted as mainstream now? ‘Baahubali’ was Telugu, ‘Kantara’ was in Kannada, ‘Pushpa’ was in Telugu, but so many people watched it. A film becomes mainstream when everyone likes it. Language has nothing to do with it. There are so many Hindi films also that don’t reach a wide audience, so we can call that regional too.“
More about Nagraj Manjule’s film ‘Frame’
On the work front, Nagraj Manjule will next be seen in Vikram Patwardhan’s directorial ‘Frame’. The film, also starring Amey Wagh, revolves around the life of two photojournalists who come to a crossroads in life where they are torn between humanity and professional responsibility. The film releases on Zee5 on July 10.