INVASION OF THE SOUTH
After Kabir Singh’s blockbuster run, over 20 south Indian remakes are in the pipeline. We take a look at what’s giving rise to so many Hindi versions
Kabir Singh continues to be Bollywood’s top earner this year (₹278 crore in India), at least for now. Call it a coincidence or the Kabir Singh-effect, but the Shahid Kapoor-starrer — a remake of the Telugu hit, Arjun Reddy — is set to be followed by over 20 Hindi remakes (as of now) of south Indian films. Interestingly, as per an estimate, the last decade saw 38 south Indian remakes in Hindi, out of which 18 hit the bull’s eye at the box office.
HIT FORMULA?
In the pipeline are remakes such as Arjun Kapoor-starrer Hindi version of Comali (Tamil), Baaghi 3 starring Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor (reportedly a remake of Tamil film, Vettai), Vedalam (Tamil), Jersey (Telugu; will reportedly star Shahid Kapoor), Vikram Vedha (Tamil; to be helmed by Neeraj Pandey), Dear Comrade (Telugu), Arundhati (Telugu), Laxmmi Bomb (remake of Muni 2: Kanchana; stars Akshay Kumar), RX 100 (Telugu; Suniel Shetty’s son, Ahan will debut with it), Bachchan Pandey (reportedly, a remake of Tamil hit, Veeram), Kaththi (to be remade as Ikka), Pithamagan (Tamil), Jiivi (Tamil) and Pulimurugan (Malayalam) among others.
“For ages, it’s been the norm in the industry that if something does well, others too want to attempt the same, as they feel it’s some kind of a formula that they also want to experiment with. And there’s nothing wrong in it. After all, everyone wants to make a hit film. But just because one such film has worked, it doesn’t mean everything will do well, or it may do even better,” says director Anees Bazmee, whose 2011 hit, Ready was the remake of the Telugu hit of the same name.
TRIED-AND-TESTED
Turn back the clock and you will find that remaking south Indian films in Hindi have always been in vogue. So, if the late 50s and 60s saw hit south remakes like Miss Mary, Bhabhi, Milan and Sasural, the 70s and 80s saw Jeetendra star in a number of hit south remakes such as Jawab, Humjoli, Himmatwala, Justice Chaudhury, Tohfa and Sanjog. Later, producer Boney Kapoor remade several south Indian hits in Hindi such as Woh Saat Din (Anil Kapoor’s first Bollywood lead role) and Judaai etc. In recent times, Aamir Khan-starrer Ghajini brought the south Indian films’ charm back, followed by others such as Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Singham, Bodyguard, Drishyam, Force, Kick, Simmba and recently-released Prassthanam.
So, what’s spawning so many remakes? “For starters, south Indian filmmakers — more often than not — come up with better, bigger and more interesting cinematic experience than us [Hindi]. Baahubali series stands as a testimony. And when it comes to putting up a big screen spectacle, they’re ahead of us. But I feel it’s high time we look at them as cinema from the Indian film fraternity and not a particular region,” says distributor-exhibitor Akshaye Rathi.
Producer Boney Kapoor, who has backed south Indian hits such as Wanted and Tevar in recent times and will produce Comali remake with son, Arjun, says for him, it’s “all about the quality content”.
He explains: “If there’s good content, people from across the country should be able to watch it. My first film as a producer, Hum Paanch was a remake of a Kannada film, Paduvaaralli Pandavaru. So, language should never be a barrier. Now, I have started doing vice versa too by remaking Hindi films in south India [he recently remade Pink in Tamil].”