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“Lust Stories 2” breaks Netflix India's top 10 records; “A canvas to talk about people at crossroads” – producer Ronnie Screwvala says
24 July 2023
The return of "Lust Stories" to Netflix put one of Asia’s oldest TV hands, Ronnie Screwvala, back into a media spotlight that he has faded into and out of since 2012 as he built other empires from his base in India.
"Lust Stories 2", a four-film anthology about love and relationships, premiered on Netflix on 29 June, ending the week of 26 June/2 July at #1 on the streaming platform’s top 10 film chart for India.
By 21 July, and despite its share of cruel domestic reviews, the property was in its third week as a chart topper in India – and the only film on the India top 10 this year that managed to hang onto #1 for three weeks.
The films – directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, Konkona Sen Sharma, R. Balki, and Sujoy Ghos and produced by Ashi Dua and Screwvala – also reached #1 spots in seven other markets around South Asia/Africa.
Co-produced by Flying Unicorn, "Lust Stories 2" is among the handful of original films Screwvala and RSVP Movies have produced in collaboration with Netflix. Titles include "Love per Square Foot" (2018), the platform’s first Indian original film; "Lust Stories" (2018), which was nominated for an International Emmy; "Ghost Stories" (2020); and "Pitta Kathalu" (2021).
“Each year, there are different projects and connections,” Screwvala says, talking in the run up to "Lust Stories 2’s" premiere about his most memorable projects.
“Lust Stories is a very good canvas to talk about people at crossroads and the confusion it involves. It’s a fun film but at the end of the day, relationships now are much more complicated than they were 10 years back. We wanted to talk about these taboo topics in a fun manner so that somebody says, ‘Wow, I thought I would never bring this up, but this film allowed me to have this conversation’.”
Screwvala’s links to Netflix go back to pre-original times.
“We got talking and I said, ‘Look, this is a fun film, let’s try it’. They said that the talent here was not ready. I said, ‘I agree with you, but I’ll take the brickbats so let’s go with it.’
“Much later on, when we were looking at Lust Stories, we were talking about making it in T...
The return of "Lust Stories" to Netflix put one of Asia’s oldest TV hands, Ronnie Screwvala, back into a media spotlight that he has faded into and out of since 2012 as he built other empires from his base in India.
"Lust Stories 2", a four-film anthology about love and relationships, premiered on Netflix on 29 June, ending the week of 26 June/2 July at #1 on the streaming platform’s top 10 film chart for India.
By 21 July, and despite its share of cruel domestic reviews, the property was in its third week as a chart topper in India – and the only film on the India top 10 this year that managed to hang onto #1 for three weeks.
The films – directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, Konkona Sen Sharma, R. Balki, and Sujoy Ghos and produced by Ashi Dua and Screwvala – also reached #1 spots in seven other markets around South Asia/Africa.
Co-produced by Flying Unicorn, "Lust Stories 2" is among the handful of original films Screwvala and RSVP Movies have produced in collaboration with Netflix. Titles include "Love per Square Foot" (2018), the platform’s first Indian original film; "Lust Stories" (2018), which was nominated for an International Emmy; "Ghost Stories" (2020); and "Pitta Kathalu" (2021).
“Each year, there are different projects and connections,” Screwvala says, talking in the run up to "Lust Stories 2’s" premiere about his most memorable projects.
“Lust Stories is a very good canvas to talk about people at crossroads and the confusion it involves. It’s a fun film but at the end of the day, relationships now are much more complicated than they were 10 years back. We wanted to talk about these taboo topics in a fun manner so that somebody says, ‘Wow, I thought I would never bring this up, but this film allowed me to have this conversation’.”
Screwvala’s links to Netflix go back to pre-original times.
“We got talking and I said, ‘Look, this is a fun film, let’s try it’. They said that the talent here was not ready. I said, ‘I agree with you, but I’ll take the brickbats so let’s go with it.’
“Much later on, when we were looking at Lust Stories, we were talking about making it in Tamil, Telugu and other regional languages, and their openness was very much there. In the last four or five years, language has opened up more than when we started off.”
Screwvala is not a “huge fan” of hybrid festival/streaming releases.
“It’s nice to do, but at the end of the day, it’s an OTT premiere and there’s enough focus for it to open in 190 countries. The festival adds some aura, so there’s no harm in that. Otherwise, it becomes a director’s passion and indulgence, but I don’t see it as a big deal in the whole process. We need to stay focused. If it’s for an OTT platform, that’s my platform and my premiere, and I have to give it everything I’ve got. Unless it’s a red carpet at Cannes, then there’s an aura around that, and the media and press give you a little bit more intrigue.”
After almost three decades in the film and media industry, Screwvala says it’s “definitely the audience” that keeps him going.
“I used to think of media as a sector where... the first 30 people I hired, I had to go to their parents to convince them to join because everyone feels that it is not such a nice place.
“Of course, now it’s very different because it’s a very high impact sector. You’re impacting people’s minds much more today than ever before, with how news, fiction, non-fiction, documentary and platforms have all come together.”
– by Sara Merican
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