Making of a remake

Copy-Act

M K Sinu

Expecting a slam-dunk hit, producers are making a beeline to the remake of last year Malayalam money-churner ‘Drishyam.’ For a material that has yielded bounty in Malayalam, there is a market outside Kerala, too – by sheer movie market size in each language. Linguistically speaking, in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, & Kannada. Big theatrical markets. Some booty to be made there.

Ever wondered why our movie going junta never like watching the original with subtitles? The reason, we are subtitle-phobic. We believe subtitles are preserve of art films. And that's surely the reason for the continuing remake. Prabhu Deva made a career out of South remakes in Bollywood.  

 

Coming to the fact of the matter. We have Venkatesh & Meena in Telugu, Kamal Hassan and Ravichandra in Tamil and Kannada respectively for Drishyam’s remake.

Hindi remake is in the pipeline. The scout is on for a superstar who has to act father of 2 adolescent daughters. Hard to find. Heroes don’t age on-screen in Bollywood. Ergo, change the script to suit the Hero. Too true to believe. Right?

Now the change in the script. Ekta Kapoor who has acquired the remake rights in Hindi just discovered – Drishyam is reportedly inspired by Japanese author Keigo Higashino's book, ‘The Devotion Of Suspect X.’ She now plans to make a film based on this book. Being presumptuous.      

 

We’ll have to give in to our ticket-buying public. They love watching a hit film from other language in the language they speak or understand. Some unalloyed joy of cinema.

Last heard, Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi starrer Ishquiya is to be remade in Tamil with Mohanlal and Arya in the lead. If my memory is serving me right, Abhishek Chaubey’s second instalment Dedh Ishqiya had a theatrical release with subtitles. For the record, Dedh Ishquiya is a commercial hit.