24 June,2026 01:04 PM IST | Mumbai | Amarylisa Gonsalves
Amol Parashar. Pic via Instagram
Whether it's movies or web series, sequels are often faced with comparisons and more so scrutiny over being 'not-so-good' as the first or the prequels. As Amol Parashar steps into the second sequel of Gram Chikitsalay, also starring Dinesh Lal Yadav and Akansha Ranjan Kapoor, marking his second-ever sequel-based format after Triplings, he sat with mid-day for a brief chat and decoded the 'trap' that seasons face.
Talking of why seasons are often compared, Amol shares, "I think it's natural to compare because it's almost like if I watch season 2, my brain will compare whether I enjoyed it more or less than the previous season. That's a very natural human tendency."
Amol further reasons, "Maybe if it (the following sequels) comes out less, there can be two reasons for that. One is that you had a different expectation in your brain. Because you saw the first season, you have baggage, and your brain wrote a season 2. And that season 2 didn't come the way you expected, so you didn't enjoy it. In the first season, you were watching without expectations. In the second season, you do not come with a clean slate. That again is natural."
"The second reason could be that season 1 is successful, so what happens at a very subconscious level (9:04) with creators and actors, also that we try to emulate the successes of season 1. And that's where the trap is. It can happen while you're writing or shooting in very small gestures, that you try to repeat that success. So you couldn't give the natural flow and honesty that was needed. You try to follow past data."
Further citing the example of his hit series Triplings, with Sumeet Vyas and Maanvi Gangroo, he says, "How many people talk about Triplings? 'Season 1, season 3 was fun and so was season 2, but the magic that the first one had that didn't happen again,' they say. Maybe we know that. It had become a beast, and you feel that you can't make it the same, because people will say that we didn't do anything new this time. If we do it a little differently, how can we do it differently? So we tried to do what we did in season 1. But we didn't know what we were doing in season 1. We were just doing it."
He goes on to add how the team was unsure of the show before it was released. He shares, "In fact, I can say 10 years later now that one day before season 1, it didn't make sense, that this is a super hit or a hit show. This was literally the feeling that something had been made, and everyone was shivering because we didn't know what it was. It's only when it came out, and then you got a sense of reaction."
"So now in season 2, how do you try to do the same thing? People will say, 'Do what you did in season 1.' How can we do it? It is a two-way trap," he adds.
