New Delhi, June 30 -- On 29 June this year, exactly 19 years after Awarapan first reached cinemas and then quietly disappeared, I watched something that would have seemed absurd in 2007: the teaser for Awarapan 2. A big-screen sequel to a film that flopped, starring the same lead, reviving the same character and relying on the audience's emotional memory of a movie most people didn't even see on first release.

The history of cinema is full of box-office bombs and blockbuster franchises. Rarely does a money-losing picture spend nearly two decades building a devoted cult and then return as a major commercial proposition.

Yet that is precisely what has happened with Awarapan.

When Vishesh Films and Emraan Hashmi announced Awarapan 2, due ...