24 years ago, director/engineer Mani Shankar’s 16 December predicted tech far ahead of its time. From 3D holography as a surveillance tool, to Gen AI image enhancement techniques, voice activated command systems, camera grids in Indian cities, ethical hacking, and long range wireless spy cams and EarPods.

As a true-blue spy film, it set a new bar that Bollywood has since built on. The brilliance of the integration of this as yet future tech into the story happening on the streets of India, made the film one of the top 10 grossers of the year.

Gulshan Grover’s iconic “Dulhan ki bidaai ka waqt badalna hai” as a voice activated command for a nuke, that is hacked by a 13 year old ethical hacker was radically new as a climax concept in Bollywood. It is also among the most quoted one-liners in Bollywood films.

The concept of the surveillance command control centre was first created for 16 December. It’s a norm for every film of the genre now.

Now, Mani Shankar is on to the sequel. It’s taken him over a year to craft a sequel to this story. Mani said, “It’s just as original, exciting and relevant as the first.”

The grim faced holster wearing and butt kicking female lead Sheba is the template followed by countless female spies down the decades. This was the first script to weave the larger geopolitics of our region into its narration.

Said Mani Shankar, “The script of the sequel 16 December 2 is almost ready. It’s registered in my name and I will be the lead producer as well. I will be pitching it to lead stars in a couple of months.”

Also Read: Mani Shankar on the failure of Rudraksh as the film completes 22 years, “I changed the way the story unfolded, that was the big mistake”