Fueled by nostalgia for a blockbuster soundtrack, a brooding anti-hero, quintessential Emraan Hashmi and a two-decade wait, Awarapan 2 has registered a mammoth, entirely unexpected Rs. 120 crore weekend.

Mounted on a reported budget of Rs. 45 crore, the Nitin Kakkar directorial has become the highest-grossing solo opener of Hashmi’s movie career spanning over 23 years. Armed with a screenplay by Kakkar, Bilal Siddiqui (Ba***ds of Bollywood), and Vishesh Bhatt, the legacy sequel marks the return of Shivam Pandit, who, it turns out, didn’t get killed at the end of Awarapan 19 years ago.

Though it recorded an abysmal lifetime theatrical run of Rs. 7 crore in 2007, the first installment—directed by Mohit Suri—gained a cult following over the years, occupying an important place in the legion of 2000s Hashmi films that were heard a lot more than they were watched.

Part of the reason for Awarapan 2’s runaway success is its acceptance of time and all the years that have happened to Shivam since we last met him. The film—which also stars Disha Patani, Shabana Azmi and Puran Gabbi—keeps Shivam’s aging at the heart of its narrative to tell the story of who he is now while occasionally harkening back to the shadows of the past.

This heady cocktail of the past catching up with the present opens up delicious possibilities. Notwithstanding mining existing IP for fan service and nostalgia farming, long-delayed sequels also give iconic characters the chance to reflect in retrospect—assess who they were and dissect the peculiar time that created them.

Unlike conventional sequels which are churned out every two or three years, installments that are allowed to brew for longer turn out more potent. For they let change and life happen. Zeitgeist shifts, the wind changes, experiences accumulate, what was once inconsequential gains meaning, the audience is no longer the same, neither is the actor who played the part.

A lot has happened with Hashmi since Awarapan. Then at the height of his career, dishing out chartbusters that defined desire and heartbreak for an entire generation, he has diversified since. Dabbling with all kinds of roles to see what sticks. Nothing really has. Not until now.

The sequels with some of the most memorable returning lead characters— Top Gun: Maverick, Blade Runner 2049, and closer home, Drishyam 2, Gadar 2 and now Awarapan 2, all allow their heroes to not just tap into the cultural memory they once helped create but also expand it. They pay homage to the past but are also nimble enough to not be encumbered by it. The best sequels flow with time and are quick to acknowledge what once was no longer is.

Nostalgia makes fans buy tickets but it alone cannot sustain a film or a franchise. No matter how clever or satisfying the interplay between Awarapan 2’s narrative and the haunting tunes of Tera Mera Rishta and Toh Phir Aao, the film needs to offer more to not take a nosedive after a spectacular first weekend.

There’s a reason why people from far-flung villages crowded in theatres across the country in 2023 to watch Sunny Deol’s Tara Singh over two decades after they first fell in love with his naive, firebrand idealism. In a fractured economy that was still battling the aftershocks of the pandemic, he reminded them of a simpler time, of who they were when they first saw him uproot a hand-pump for love at the turn of the millennium.

Awarapan 2 is doing the same. It’s giving millennials a reason to stop doom scrolling and actually take themselves to the nearest theatre to watch their favourite alt-hero age as they themselves have while listening to the music that nursed them through their first heartbreaks.