Remake fever seems to grip Bollywood. Smitten by the success of Singham, Son of Sardar, Ready and Rowdy Rathore more filmmakers look towards south for films that have flourished at the Box office in South. Not to be left behind many stars are vying for the half baked pies to be tailor made to Hindi audience. The stars in the wait include Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan and Kareena Kapoor. In addition to this many south films are simultaneously shot, keeping in mind the Hindi film goers.
The first in the league is Viswaroop by Dr Kamal Haasan. The film that is to hit the screens on January 25 has already created the necessary hype and boasts of unparallelled technical excellence. The actor cum director and producer for the film has roped in a variety of stars from all qualms for this trilingual flick.
Bejoy Nambiar's David staring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vinay Virmani and Vikram in the lead roles alongside Tabu, Lara Dutta and Isha Sharvani. The story revolves around three people with the same name and the promos have already raised the hype. The Tamil film has been shot simultaneously with slight variations to fit the bill.
Leading filmmaker Sajid Nadiadwala has roped in Salman Khan and Deepika Padukone along with Randeep Hooda in a prominent role. This film is a remake of a super hit Telugu film of the same name staring Ravi Teja and Ileana D'Cruz. It is a hilarious action entertainer.
Filmmaker Prakash Jha is all set to remake the Tamil and Telugu super hit film KO (Rangam in Telugu). He has roped in big names for this film staring Jiiva and Karthika in the original version. The Hindi film will star Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Manoj Bajpai. The title for this political action thriller is 'Satyagraha.'
A R Murugadoss will be back in Hindi after a hiatus with Ghajini (2008), he shall remake his Tamil super hit film Thuppakki which had Tamil superstar Vijay paired with glam doll Kajal Agarwal. The remake would have Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead. According to sources, the script has been tinkered to suit the wider base audience. Incidentally this was the second film from Tamil to reach the Rs 100 crore club.
With a series of duds, Shahid Kapoor looks the south way for making it to the limelight. He is to don the lead role in the remake of Tamil film, Vettai. The original film had Arya and R Madhavan in the lead. The original director Linguswamy is retained by UTV that is producing the film.
Not to be left behind Aamir Khan is all set the role of Surya in the Tamil film 7 am Arivu to be remade in Hindi. The original heroine of the film Shruti Haasan has been retained in the new version also, claim sources. This was directed by A R Murugadoss in Tamil and it is a Science fiction thriller which did not reap dividends at the ticket counter but won all around acclaim.
With so many films on the anvil, it is going to be a thorough south fare at the box office in the coming two years in Bollywood. Normally it was a trend that Bollywood stories were unofficially remade in south. The changing trends show how fast the south tinsel worlds have evolved to unleash fresh whiff of air. (Wishesh AarKay)
