April 17, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Lara Dutta, Bipasha Basu , Sushmita Sen…These are the names that would be offered the lead parts in the sequel to Prince which is all set to go on the floors early next year.

Kookie Gulati, the young director of Prince is in a daze. He just can’t believe the opening that his film Prince has received.And before he could even begin to let the whole idea of a potential hit sink in, he’s all set to create a sequel to Prince.

Confirming this, Gulati says, “We had left the ending open, suggesting there might be more to the plot than what we had just seen. But there was just a hint of a fear. What if Prince fell flat on its face? What would people say about even suggesting a sequel?”

Luckily the response to the film has been overwhelming. Kookie who had never directed a feature film before, has locked the plot. “I have an idea for the sequel which I’ll now develop. Since it’s the plot that has worked in Prince we’ve to make sure the sequel is even stronger in terms of content.”

While Vivek Oberoi will of course play the title role in the sequel the rest of the cast specially the leading ladies will all change.

Says a source close to the Prince project, “When we approached the top leading ladies they all either said a straight no nor or begged off with the date excuse. They had no faith in the project. More importantly no top leading lady wanted to work with Vivek. On the day after Prince opened Vivek began to receive congratulatory smses from some of the leading ladies who had declined to work with him in Prince.”

Vivek Oberoi laughs . “I wouldn’t like to dwell on the past. All is good now. And I’d just like to concentrate on the positive things. Yes, we are making a sequel.In fact when we put in a suggestion of it in the first film we had finally decided to edit it out because it was vain at that point of time to think audiences would like our film enough to see a sequel.”

Adds Kookie Gulati, “It’s been a three-year uphill climb for me and Vivek. I was making music videos for the Tauranis’ Tips It took me a great deal of effort to convince them that I could pull off a feature film. During the last three years I have had no time to do anything else but the film.My 3-year old son thinks I’m a stranger in the house. I’m much better prepared for the sequel. I’m more confident now.”

Producer Kumar Taurani also confirms plans for the sequel.

-Subhash K Jha/Sampurn Wire