Cult of Remake grips Bollywood

Remaking the hits of Hollywood in desi (i.e., Indian) style was in vogue in Bollywood since long, which is, however, called drawing inspiration and not copying in the language of the Glamour Industry. But now there is a paradigm shift in the concept of remake.

Bollywood is now obsessed with the concept of doing remakes of old Hindi classics and cult movies made by the Kings and Queens of the same Industry in the yesteryears.

Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s Devdas was first filmed by P.C. Barua, followed by Bimal Roy and then by Sanjay Leela Bansali. Sanjay’s Devdas featuring Shah Rukh Khan in 2002 was a great hit. Again, the remake of oldie Parineeta by Vidhu Vinod Chopra created a great hype. Both these remakes were palatable even to the generation X. Perhaps this gives rationale for remaking the oldies. This trend is highly contagious and the remake which then attracted much media attention was Farhan Akhtar’s Don released a few days ago, which featured Shah Rukh Khan as Don. This gadget-friendly hi-tech Don is quite in contrast with the pan-chewing Don of Amitabh Bachchan. Geographically, Don was relocated to Malaysia from the Chamba valley.

The month of November will witness the release of another remake and this time it is the turn of J.P. Dutta’s Umrao Jaan. In this film, Aishwarya Rai will do what Rekha did in its original version in the 1980’s. Ash was found to say that she was very hopeful of the success of the film. The historical backdrop of this film will not permit its makers to inject the hi-tech aspect in it. In its absence, it will all depend in the treatment of the subject matter and quality and capability of those playing the lead role.

Then comes the biggest Bollywood hit Sholay. The man behind this remake is none other than the talented Ram Gopal Varma. More interesting is the role reversal of the remake. The great name of Bollywood who played Jai in the original one will now be seen as the bad man-Gabbar Singh. However, Ram Gopal Varma’s decision to remake the blockbuster of yesteryears-Sholay seemed to be a bed of thorns, with the Delhi High Court issuing a stay order on the remake regarding violation of Copyright Act.

Many more remakes will be taken up by Bollywood next year like, Rituparno Ghosh’s Rahgeer , a remake of Dev Anand-starrer Guide , Feroz Khan’s Qurbani , and Raj Sippy’s Satte Pe Satta. “Sahib, Biwi Aur Ghulam” and “Arth” are the other classical remakes slated for release next year. Sudhir Mishra will also do a remake of his own movie ‘Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin’ in English.

Two contradictory views are aired regarding the concept of remakes. A section of the populace feels that remaking a film is without any merit involving squandering money and time. While those in favour of remakes feel that it helps the generation X & Y, who finds it hard to relate to the old versions. The big shots associated with remakes also see no harm in remaking an old classic. It is rather a challenge for them to prepare such stuff which would be palatable to the modern techno-fed audience. It is more an urge to highlight creativity. All big names dismissed the fact that it is nothing like dearth of new plots. So as of now let’s see how the remakes perform in the box-office.

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