Aug 11, 2026 11:30am IST
‘Awarapan 2’ Writer Bilal Siddiqui on Avoiding Nostalgia Bait: ‘We Didn’t Want to Just Patch on Any Story’ (EXCLUSIVE)
"Awarapan 2" writer Bilal Siddiqui is acutely aware of the expectations surrounding the sequel. A self described fan of the 2007 film, Siddiqui says returning to its world was both a personal milestone and a writing challenge. For him, the objective was not to recreate the original, but to understand what made it endure and find a new story capable of carrying those emotions forward.
"I am a big fan of the first part and this is a dream come true," Siddiqui tells Variety India in an exclusive interview. "I had seen it in school and was really fascinated by it, Emraan's performance, the storytellingnand the songs."
That familiarity also made Siddiqui conscious of the film's emotional legacy. He says songs such as "Toh Phir Aao" and "Tera Mera Rishta" remain part of his everyday listening, while the original's impact on audiences became an important consideration when developing the sequel. "I know the weight that this film holds emotionally for the fans and the factors that have made it a cult classic," he says.
Related Stories
The writing process therefore began with identifying the elements that needed to remain part of the "Awarapan" universe. Siddiqui says producer Vishesh Bhatt was clear about bringing back themes including angst, redemption, action, love and devotion, but those elements needed to exist within a new narrative.
"These things that made 'Awarapan' resonate with the audiences would have to come back and we needed a fresh vehicle for these themes to exist in," Siddiqui says.
The central question was what could happen next to Emraan Hashmi's Shivam Pandit, rather than simply finding a new plot to attach to a familiar title. "Vishesh was clear that he wanted to take Shivam ahead as a character, since he is what makes 'Awarapan' work," Siddiqui says. He adds that he, Vishesh, Hashmi and director Nitin Kakkar spent months discussing possibilities before arriving at the sequel's eventual story.
"We didn't want to just patch on any story to the title and call it "'Awarapan 2'. The story we landed eventually upon is a very organic way to carry his story forward," he says.
For Siddiqui, that continuation works because Shivam's journey was never emotionally complete. He shares, "There is a very interesting, complex character that part one had handed us in Shivam Pandit. Life isn't done with him and despite being reclusive and burdened, he still has one more fight left in him."
The result, Siddiqui says, is a sequel that pushes Shivam beyond the emotional and external challenges audiences saw in the first film, while attempting to preserve the qualities that made the original endure.
Comments are moderated. They may be edited for clarity and reprinting in whole or in part in Variety publications.