Even though they made two fine movies in Flavors and 99, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, or as they are known together as Raj & DK, made a mark in Bollywood with their third film, the black comedy, Shor In The City. Starring Tusshar Kapoor and Radhika Apte, the movie was critically acclaimed for its sharp writing and effervescent direction. Then they went on to make the cult Go Goa Gone, India's first zombie comedy. Their recent movies, Happy Endings and A Gentleman may not have worked well with the audiences, but the directing style of Raj & DK has amassed quite a cult following, the writer included.

Now they are turning producers for the first time in Bollywood (they had earlier produced a Telugu film) with Stree. The horror comedy stars Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead. While Amar Kaushik is directing Stree, the movie has been written by Raj & DK themselves. Which makes curious about why they themselves didn't choose to direct the film. Stree Music Review: Sachin-Jigar's Score for Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor's Horror Comedy is Quirky Fun

So when LatestLY go the opportunity to pose this question to the director-producer duo, they had some interesting insights to share.

It was Raj Nidimoru who spoke first, as he said, "We write to direct. We have some interesting scripts ready with us. But we are not getting time to (direct). We were doing just one film in a year and a half or two. This way (by letting someone else direct their scripts), we thought we could make more movies. We are still part of Stree, it is still our film. So why not make more?"

Krishna DK then added, "Start sharing - that was our idea. But it comes with our conditions. You need to find the right person to collaborate with, and the right people to make it. Amar Kaushik was our associate director when we were making Go Goa Gone, so we do share a certain level of comfort and bandwidth. He has just made a short film that won the National award (for Aaba in 2017) and he was looking to make a feature film. So we said, okay, he is the perfect guy (to direct Stree). We had a few chats with him, he also loved the concept and he had started owning up."

Raj chipped in, "It's a collaborative process, Amar directing and us producing. We were always there for whatever he wanted. We knew exactly how Stree was going to shape. We had a lot of discussions about each scene, because Stree belongs to those borderline genres that you need to get right. Otherwise, it would turn into a spoofy slapstick comedy or it will become a very serious stuff. You need to be in that sweet spot."

Catch the trailer of Stree here -

Raj & DK are producing Stree along with Dinesh Vijan under the banner Maddock Films. After Stree, they will get to scripting the sequel to Go Goa Gone, that will bring back Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu, Vir Das and Anand Tiwari from the first film. Raj & DK are also involved in the making of the Amazon Prime series, The Family Man. Manoj Bajpayee will play the lead in the series.

Meanwhile, Stree is all set to release on August 31.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 29, 2018 10:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).