Is Farhan Akhtar's 'Don 2' really a sequel?

New Delhi: The upcoming Farhan Akhtar film 'Don 2' will start a season of sequels. Several films such as 'Houseful 2', 'Jannat 2', 'Once Upon A time In Mumbai 2', 'Race 2', 'Dabangg 2' and 'Dostana 2' are expected to hit theatres in the months to come.

This trend is an import from Hollywood where sequels are ruling the roost since some years.

In fact, Hollywood has registered record number of sequels this year. Top six of ten highest revenue generating films of Hollywood are sequels only. 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2', 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon', 'The Hangover Part II', 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tide', and 'Cars 2' are among these films.

The box office seems to remain tilted in favour of sequels for some more time as at least 95 more sequels are under production in Hollywood.

The Hindi film industry is not far behind. More than 20 sequels are already planned with established actors in the lead.

More than the dearth of original stories, this shows the lack of willingness on part of the producers.

Sometimes, they just use a title that sounds like a sequel with an entirely different storyline, basically to utilize the success of the prequel. 'Murder 2' was something totally dissimilar to the earlier 'Murder'. Similarly, 'Jannat 2' and 'Houseful 2' are expected to feature new stories.

The essence of sequels lies in the original concept. 'Ocean's 12' and 'Ocean's 13' can be called sequels because the storyteller carried forward the story of the same person Daniel Ocean. 'Harry Potter' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise also qualify as sequels but can we say the same about 'Phir Hera Pheri' or 'Golmaal Returns'?

'Krrish' and 'Lagey Raho Munna Bhai' at least showed some connection to the former story. They started from where the last edition ended and the chief star cast also remained more or less the same. Moreover the characters did not show any sudden transformation in their basic virtues.

There is a vital difference between the James Bond series and Jason Bourne series despite both having one single character at the helm of affairs.

Bond goes on separate mission every time while Bourne takes the same mission forward in every version.

'Don 2' also has omitted some characters and included few new ones. Kunal Kapoor and Lara Dutta have made it to the final star cast. Farhan Akhtar has said in interviews that,"The new film is very different from the previous one. It's a whole new story and whole new chapter of the evolution of Don as a character."

He further has said that the film will also care to explain the reasons why someone had to become Don.

The promos reveal that the basic style and mannerism of 'Don 2' is quite similar to the 2006 film 'Don'. Most of the characters rather the actors are also same.

So will the film qualify as a proper sequel film or will it just use the popularity of Don's character. Only the first screening of the film will answer these questions.