On-screen couple Jyoti Dogra and Nagesh Kukunoor seem to be going places, perched on a cab on Monday, when the stars of Hyderabad Blues 2 breezed through the city. Picture by Pabitra Das

Six years down the line, I wanted to know what Varun and Ashwini might be doing. So, I couldn’t resist the temptation of returning to familiar territory.”

Actor and film-maker Nagesh Kukunoor doesn’t need a more valid reason to make a sequel to his most talked about film Hyderabad Blues, which kindled the Indian-English film genre.

The characters of the film, made on a shoe-string budget, had succeeded in touching the heart-strings of film-goers across the country. Just as surely as one rather unprintable line about hearts and hands (Dil pe mat le yaar... is as far as we can go to jog your memory) tickled the funny bone. On Friday, the characters — and that near-iconic line — will be making a much-anticipated comeback.

In typical Hollywood style, the sequel is called Hyderabad Blues 2 and before it hits theatres this weekend, the man behind the magic touched base in Calcutta on Monday, along with some of the cast.

This is the first “true sequel” made in India, feels Nagesh. “No proper sequel has ever been made, so this is brand new ground. We have to wait and see whether the concept works,” he says, admitting that risks are obviously very high because expectations are based on the “standards set by the original”.

Hyderabad Blues 2 takes a peek into the lives of the protagonists — Varun and Ashwini — six years after they were hilariously joined in holy matrimony. While Kukunoor himself plays Varun once again, Rajshri Nair, who had played Ashwini in part one, has been replaced by Jyoti Dogra, in a lead role for the first time.

“We tried very hard to get Rajshri. But she is now married and settled in the US. She couldn’t come to India at that point of time because of visa problems,” reveals Nagesh. “I either had to postpone the shoot or take someone new.” But Jyoti, “a terrific actress”, suited the character perfectly. “So, I decided to go ahead with her,” he adds.

For Jyoti, though, the film was a “new one with a fresh script like any other film” and she did not base her performance on the earlier portrayal.

“The film is about the way men think versus the way women think. It is centred around situations and issues that surround any middle-class couple in urban India,” explains Nagesh. In keeping with the “middle-class” image of the movie, the director has stuck to basic technology.

“In this chaos of glitzy camera work, I wanted to go back to the basics. So I made an anti-sleek film,” he says. Static camera shots, real locations and the no-makeup look all add to the “normal people” effect.

Though busy with the country-wide promo, Nagesh is already planning his next venture. Called 90 Days, the forthcoming film is about a man who wins a huge sum of money but, at the same time, finds out that he has only 90 days to live.

With the lead roles still up for grabs, Nagesh stresses that he is open to casting mainstream Bollywood stars if he finds a fit.

But stars alone do not make a film a hit, he has learnt. “Teen Deewarein, my only film so far with mainstream Bollywood actors (Jackie Shroff and Juhi Chawla) didn’t set the box-office registers ringing. Stars create curiosity, but they don’t bring in more viewers. The audience is very perceptive, they understand from the promos whether a film will suit their taste or not.”

Nagesh’s hand has strayed away from celluloid, as well. He has written a book on Hyderabadi slang called Uno Kaiko Bola. “It’s sort of a dictionary of Hyderabadi slang, much of which has been used in the film. The book will be released after the film,” smiles the versatile man.