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.    

Tamil Movies to watch out for in 2014

Tamil Movies Bucket List - 2014

Saumesh Thimbath

Much has been told about Jilla and Veeram, even in this space, so without wasting more of anybody's time, let's move to the next big releases that are expected this year. 

Kochadaiiyaan – Rajni's next. Directed by Rajnikanth's daughter Soundarya, the production of the movie started some time ago and was expected to hit the screens on the superstar's birthday last month.

It is the first movie made in India using the motion capture technology seen in Avatar and The Adventures of Tintin. Rajnikanth plays three characters in the movie. The rumors that the actor might say goodbye to acting after the movie also stands in good stead for it.

Viswaroopam 2 – After the controversial Viswaroopam, Kamal Hassan holsters up his guns for a second part. The shooting for many scenes in the movie was already done along with Viswaroopam and the sequel would give a fitting end to the story that began in the first. Nobody knows what to expect from the film as nobody quite understands what goes on inside the Ulaganayagan's head.

I – I is Shanker's next starring Vikram and Amy Jackson in the lead. According to reports it is a science fiction romantic thriller. Vikram has worked hard on his physique and Shanker on the visual effects. The visual and graphic works of the movie is underway at Weta Studios, New Zealand, the studio owned by the director of The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson. Nothing much about the movie has been made public and this strategy is paying off. All the names mentioned here is enough promotion to garner a superb opening and make it a blockbuster. That I would be a hit is a foregone conclusion.

Muni 3: Ganga – Muni, a hororr movie with generous doses of cheesy humour and unrestrained dance numbers, was a B-class theatre phenomenon when it was released in 2007. Raghava Lawrence, the director who is also the lead actor and choreographer, followed it up with Kanchana in 2011, which was an even bigger hit. Lawrence returns with the third installment this year and we see a freaky franchisee in the making.

Apart from these, there are a few other movie which is still in the pre-production stages. An Ajith-Gautam Menon project is on the anvil, so is a Vijay-Murugadoss film. Surya, the star who is making a steady rise to super stardom, would be seen in movies directed by Venkat Prabhu and Lingusamy. The icing on the cake? That there would be movies directed by newcomers which would take us by surprise as has been the case in the past few years.