E OTHER Y AROUND!
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”. Pink: This Shoojit Sircarproduced hit was recently remade in Tamil as Nerkonda Paarvai starring Ajith. Andhadhun: Sriram Raghavan’s thriller is set to be remade in Tamil as well as Telugu. Badhaai Ho: Boney Kapoor will remake the comedy-drama in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.
Article 15: Talks are that Ajith may star in the Tamil remake of the Ayushmann Khurranastarrer.
OMG - Oh My God!: Pawan Kalyan and Venkatesh starred in the Telugu version, Gopala Gopala.
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].”
Apart from being a successful actor, not many people know that Tisca Chopra also wrote a sort of manual for people aspiring to enter showbiz a couple of years ago, called Acting Smart: Your Ticket to Showbiz. In it, she had mentioned how one will face ‘insurmountable obstacles’ on the way to success. We ask her what really transpired for her to come to this conclusion, and Tisca says, “A director once told me ‘your nose is too long’. And I was like what can I do about it? I’m not looking at plastic surgery as an option to cut my nose down, what do you do with that? It’s just the way it is! Another director, after my work became successful, said ‘My God, you have a beautiful nose’. I started laughing, and he asked me ‘are you crazy? I am complimenting you!’ I replied that somebody had said the exact opposite thing. When you start out working, new people hear ‘tumme namak nahi hai’ ‘yeh nahi hai’, then that person suddenly starts working and all those things that you think never existed suddenly pop out. Those are obstacles.”
There are the obnoxious attitudes,too, a newcomer has to battle. “When I had just come into the business, a director said ‘just copy what I’m doing. Actors are monkeys’. I looked at him and thought ‘training, theatre and we are reduced to monkeys?’ He’s no longer working at all, and I’m ready to direct my first film. It’s been a long journey, from people telling me how to lead my life, doing this and that,” says Tisca,
Rishabh Suri
TISCA CHOPRA,
who’s been a part of acclaimed films such as Taare Zameen Par (2007) and Firaaq (2008).
The 45-year-old elaborates, “I kept going back to my instincts even back then. I would take their advice, not saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’, then I would think about it. That allowed me to stay current. I didn’t want to lead someone’s else’s idea of my life.”