Renowned filmmaker Nagraj Manjule raised the stature of 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 Raja Shivaji surpassed it earlier this year. Sairat was also remade in Hindi as ‘Dhadak’ (2018), scoring Janhvi Kapoordebut on the big screen. Last year, the franchise expanded with ‘Dhadak 2’ starring Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri.Recently, while promoting his acting project ‘Frame’, Nagraj Manjule spoke to SCREEN about the success of ‘Sairat’ and whether he has any plans to make ‘Sairat 2’ after the release of ‘Dhadak 2’.
Nagraj Manjule on ‘The Success of Sairat
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 with the film. When I was writing 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. I didn’t need to dramatize it, so I kept it as it is. What we always think is that the love story ends with happily ever after; we don’t see the problems with it, so my vision was to show it.”Talking about the film’s success, the filmmaker said, “I never thought Sairat would be a Bollywood adaptation. We just make our film. We don’t think about how many people will like it or whether there will be a remake.”
Will Nagraj Manjule do ‘Sairat 2’?
Last year, Dharma Productions extended the ‘Dhadak’ franchise with a sequel. When asked if this had inspired him to consider making ‘Sairat 2’, Nagraj Manjule said, “Sairat 2 doesn’t need inspiration from ‘Dhadak 2’ to be made. If there is a story, ‘Sairat 2’ will be made. I think the story was complete in itself, but sometimes when people like a movie, they want to see what happens next. A lot of people still ask me when I’m going to make a sequel to Fandry. After ‘Sairat’ came out, people forgot about it. But now they keep asking me about ‘Sairat 2’. I think it’s a world where you can talk a lot, but I haven’t 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. Her ‘Frame’ co-star Amey Wagh noted that Marathi cinema delivered seven hits in the first six months of 2026, adding that Sairat had “opened a door to a hall full of treasures”.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 Rs 30-40 crore. So what is considered mainstream? ‘Baahubali’ was in Telugu, ‘Kantara’ was seen in Telugu, but a lot of people watched it in Telugu, ‘Kantara’. A film becomes mainstream when everybody likes it Language has nothing to do with it.“
More about Nagraj Manjule’s movie ‘Frame’
On the work front, Nagraj Manjule will next be seen in Vikram Patwardhan directorial ‘Frame’. The film, also starring 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.