May 2024 · 7 minute read

Bollywood heist comedy “Crew,” starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tabu and Kriti Sanon, is a hit and producers Ektaa R Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor are looking at a sequel.

Directed by Rajesh A Krishnan (“Lootcase”) and written by hit “Veere Di Wedding” duo Nidhi Mehra and Mehul Suri, the film is produced by Balaji Motion Pictures and Anil Kapoor Films & Communication Network. It follows three flight attendants with a failing airline who get involved in gold smuggling to a fictitious Middle Eastern country in an operation that’ll save them and their unpaid colleagues financially. The cast also includes Trupti Khamkar (Sundance short “Nocturnal Burger”), Diljit Dosanjh (Netflix film “Amar Singh Chamkila”), Kapil Sharma (Busan title “Zwigato”), Rajesh Sharma (“NH6”), Saswata Chatterjee (“Kahaani”) and Kulbhushan Kharbanda (“Mirzapur”).

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“Crew” released over the Easter weekend and, with an opening day worldwide gross of $2.5 million, became one of the highest female-led openers in the history of Hindi-language cinema. It has grossed $12.5 million to date.

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Ektaa R Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor, who are not related, began producing together when the latter took the concept of female-led buddy comedy “Veere Di Wedding” to the former and got greenlit immediately. The film, directed by Shashanka Ghosh and starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam K Ahuja, Swara Bhasker and Shikha Talsania, released in 2018 and was a big hit.

“When we made ‘Veere,’ at that time we genuinely made the film without any thought to box office, the film itself was something new, it had never been done, it was a risk in a lot of ways,” Rhea Kapoor told Variety. “The response that we got at the box office for that film filled me with this new determination. I told Ektaa, ‘I want to make a movie with three girls that I can release on a holiday, because the holidays are always reserved for the boys.’ It was this idea that it should feel as large, special, important, jovial and as much of a celebration either way.”

Rhea Kapoor had previously produced female-led hits “Aisha” and “Khoobsurat.” “For the first time in my life as a creative producer, as a person I felt understood. And I felt supported. I think she [Ektaa R Kapoor] saw potential in me that maybe I didn’t see also and she’s always pushed me,” Rhea Kapoor said. “And I felt very safe. I felt very understood, very taken care of, and I feel like that’s why you need other women around you – no guy could have done that. She made me feel like I can do anything. And she was the one that saw the commercial potential in what I was doing.”

Ektaa R Kapoor added, “She’s [“24: India,” “Slumdog Millionaire” star] Anil Kapoor’s daughter. And I’m going to say this as clear as – there is a certain sense of, I won’t call it nepotism or genes, but what I have taken from my father [veteran Bollywood star Jeetendra] is adaptability and that adaptability that Rhea has is what I love about her. She is able to sense a market.”

A sequel has been proposed for “Crew.” “I really get scared of sequels, I’m so afraid of them, Ektaa gets so annoyed with me… but this is the first film where I finished the film and a week later, my writers have messaged me and told me that they have an idea for the sequel. I was like, this is crazy. This is insane. There’s so much excitement and joy around this film that this time I might actually just do it. But I actually think that this film could make a really fun sequel because the end is open ended,” Rhea Kapoor said.

Ektaa R Kapoor added, “Look at these three women, they are hitting it off with each other, the chemistry is banging.”

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the producer duo. Their previous collaboration, patriarchy-bashing sex comedy “Thank You for Coming” received a rousing reception at its Toronto gala presentation in 2023, but underperformed at the Indian box office. “It has left a very strange pain in my heart because the way that film was and the kind of reception it got in India, vis-a-vis the reception it got overseas, I don’t know what happened,” Ektaa R Kapoor said. “And the hate spamming we went through – our walls used to be spammed every day with hatred, because we attempted to discover and make a movie on female sexuality. I can only imagine what’s gonna happen when ‘LSD 2’ [Dibakar Banerjee’s sequel to his 2010 hit “LSD: Love, Sex Aur Dhokha”] comes. I think I’ll have to hide again.”

Next up for the duo is a sequel to “Veere Di Wedding.” “It’s a work in progress, but it’s happening and it’s exciting. It’s going to take a bit but I feel like we’re getting there. It’s a rediscovery of what the spirit of ‘Veere Di Wedding’ was, so it’s not going to be what people expect,” Rhea Kapoor said. “I’m going to take my time and make it as special as I can. And, I’ll do it when it’s just right. Even if Ektaa kills me.”

“Rhea, we won’t kill you, we’ll softly nudge you,” Ektaa R Kapoor added.

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