Mudassar Aziz: 'If Sandeep Reddy Vanga takes care of Sholay genre, somebody has to follow Hrishikesh Mukherjee'

Mudassar Aziz, Bollywood director of 'Pati Patni Aur Woh Do', has made a case for comedy films that feels both personal and urgent. "If Sandeep Reddy Vanga takes care of Sholay genre, somebody has to follow Hrishikesh Mukherjee!" he said in an exclusive interview with Koimoi.

The statement arrived in the middle of a conversation about what gets celebrated in Indian cinema today. Aziz was talking about the films that shaped him — 'Chupke Chupke', 'Angoor', the kind of comedies that trusted their audience to laugh without being told when. He was also talking about what happens when an entire genre stops being treated as serious work.

The comparison to Sandeep Reddy Vanga, the filmmaker behind intense dramas, was deliberate. Aziz was drawing a line between the directors who champion action and intensity and the ones who carry forward the legacy of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the legendary director whose comedies were built on character and timing, not spectacle. "Can you imagine a world without 'Chupke Chupke' or 'Angoor'?" he asked.

The interview was tied to the release of 'Pati Patni Aur Woh Do', but the real subject was bigger than one film. Aziz was making the argument that comedy deserves the same investment, the same respect, the same space in the conversation as any other genre. That someone has to carry that torch forward, the way Mukherjee did for decades.

It was a quiet call to action, delivered without drama. Just a director saying what he believes: that laughter is work worth doing, and someone has to do it.