Acclaimed filmmaker Nagraj Manjule raised the bar in Marathi cinema with his 2016 National Award-winning romantic tragedy ‘Sairat’, starring Rinku Rajguru and Akash Thosar. The film became the highest grossing Marathi film of all time, a record it held for nearly a decade before being surpassed by Raja Shivaji earlier this year. Sairat was also remade in Hindi as ‘Dhadak’ (2018), which noted: Janhvi Kapoorthe 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 do ‘Sairat 2’ after the release of ‘Dhadak 2’.
Nagraj Manjule in ‘Sairat’s success’
During the conversation, Nagraj Manjule revealed that he wrote the story of ‘Sairat’ with the simplest vision. Manjule said, “I never saw it as a challenge. I said what I wanted in the film. When I wrote Sairat, I thought 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 we fall in love. What we always think is that the love story ends happily ever after; we don’t see the problems with it, so my vision is to show that.”Talking about the film’s success, the filmmaker said, “I never thought Sairat would be adapted in Bollywood. We just made our film. We didn’t think about how many people would like it or if there would be a remake.”
Will Nagraj Manjule do ‘Sairat 2’?
Last year, Dharma Productions expanded the ‘Dhadak’ franchise with a sequel. When asked if that inspired him to consider making ‘Sairat 2’, Nagraj Manjule said, “Sairat 2 doesn’t need to be inspired by ‘Dhadak 2’ to be made. If there is a story, ‘Sairat 2’ will be made. I feel the story is complete in itself, but sometimes when people like a film, they want to see what else happens 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 like this is a world where a lot can be said, but I don’t think about it.”
Nagraj Manjule on the rise of Marathi cinema
Nagraj also talks about the development of Marathi cinema, showing how the diversity between mainstream and regional cinema is evolving. His ‘Frame’ co-star Amey Wagh It pointed out that Marathi cinema delivered seven hits in the first six months of 2026, adding that Sairat “opened the door to a room full of wealth.”Sharing how Marathi cinema is progressing, Nagraj said, “‘Raja Shivaji’ and ‘Deool Band 2’ have crossed Rs 100 crore. A couple of other films have earned around Rs 30-40 crore. So, what is considered mainstream today? ‘Baahubali’ is in Telugu, ‘Kantara’ is in Kannada, ‘Pushpa’s watching that film. if everyone likes it. The language nothing to do with it.“
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, which also stars Amey Wagh, revolves around the lives of two photojournalists who reach a crossroads in life where they are torn between humanity and professional responsibility. The film releases on Zee5 on July 10.