The announcement of the sequel of Anees Bazmee’s Ready (2011), produced by Bhushan Kumar, has sent pleasant ripples through B-Town. The Salman-Anees-Bhushan combo had made Ready a runaway blockbuster. The movie holds the record for the eighth-highest grossing Bollywood film ever made domestically after its run in the theatres. 

Interestingly, the sequel will also see the return of Salman Khan’s loveable character Prem R Kapoor. His clean-shaven, bespectacled look offset with formal blazers, shirts and ties as his on-screen office look, and leather jackets, T-shirts, jeans, ganjis and shorts as his home look had set a fashion trend for many. 

The story of a sequel often turn out to be completely different from that of the earlier film. When we asked Bazmee whether the sequel will carry on from where Ready left off or have a totally different story, he said, “The genre will be a family entertainer with lots of action, romance and comedy like Ready was but Salman’s character of Prem R Kapoor will remain the same.”  

In Ready, in the end, Prem and Sanjana Chaudhary (Asin Sharma) get married and their wedding picture is taken with the Kapoors and Chaudharies, aka the Chapoors. All the Chapoors may not be seen, Bazmee informed. He added, “We will check how many characters there were in the two families in Ready and take them according to their availability.”  

The filmmaker said that he was finalising his next projects and would take a call in the next couple of weeks. “If Salman bhai wants to start Ready, we will go ahead with it, or if he says wait one year we will wait. I am not sure because I have not met Salman bhai as yet and it all depends on when we get his dates.”

Interestingly, when Ready was being shot in Bangkok in 2011, there were reports of a fallout between Salman and Bazmee. Buzz was that both had a heated argument on the sets and a miffed Bazmee abandoned the Bangkok schedule mid way and left for Mumbai. However, everybody connected to the movie had denied it at that time. The situation had worsened when Bazmee’s Welcome Back clashed with Salman’s home production Hero, though the star had announced the date on Twitter with the words, "Back Off". In 2016, Salman and Bazmee buried the hatchet, making peace at the actor’s 50th birthday party.

When quizzed about it, Bazmee dismissed the fallout. “There was nothing like that. I don’t know how such stories came out and who gave it with what motivation. Salman bhai doesn’t like to clear these things and even I didn’t feel it was important. I have a very different kind of relationship with Salman bhai – there’s love and respect between us and we have also met when there’s been no work. I am a writer first and then a director and he respects that. Writers ke liye unke dil mein kuch alag pyar hai as his father is a writer too. Hamarein beech mein hamesha pyar mohabbat ka rishta hai. Bhai loves me and is a good friend. On his 50th birthday we sat together till 6am just chatting, and discussed many things. I love his father Salim uncle too because he is a writer. He always tells me kamal ka writer hoon main. Whenever we meet, Salim uncle greets me with so much happiness and warmth. I have done No Entry and Ready with Salman bhai and both were super hits.”

Ready is a remake of the 2008 Telugu film, Ready and besides starring Salman Khan and Asin in lead roles, also featured Paresh Rawal, Arya Babbar and Mahesh Manjrekar in supporting roles, while Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Kangana Ranaut, Zarine Khan and Arbaaz Khan did cameo appearances.