By Naman Ramachandran

“Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank,” Amar Kaushik’s follow-up to his 2018 horror-comedy hit “Stree,” is poised to become one of the biggest Indian blockbusters of the year. Produced by Maddock Films and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Studios, the film released on Thursday, August 15, a national holiday in India for Independence Day. The film had grossed $33.7 million through Sunday, just four days after its release, surpassing “Stree’s” lifetime gross of $21.5 million.

Set in a small town called Chanderi, in “Stree”, the story finds men living in fear of an evil spirit named Stree who kidnaps men at night. The film, written by the prolific pair of Raj & DK and Sumit Arora, is based on the folk legend of “Naale Ba” from the South Indian state of Karnataka. In “Stree 2”, written by Niren Bhatt, Chanderi is once again plagued. This time, women are mysteriously kidnapped by a terrifying headless creature. Once again, it is up to the protagonists to save their town and their loved ones.

The cast for both films includes Shraddha Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana and Abhishek Banerjee. "Stree 2" is the latest instalment in Maddock's Supernatural Universe, which began with "Stree" and was followed by "Roohi" (2021), "Bhediya" (2022) and "Munjya" (2024).