From 'Players', 'Agneepath', 'Rowdy Rathore', 'Son of Sardar' to 'Chashme Buddoor', 2012 will see a string of remakes in 2012.
Bollywood has been remaking films since times immemorial but off-late filmmakers are opting for official remakes over blatant plagiarism. Ghajini, Wanted, Ready, Bodyguard just ascertain the fact. The year 2012 kick-starts with an official remake - Players and there are many more of them in store. We list down the most prominent remakes in 2012 analyzing 'what's new', 'what's retained' and the 'remake history' or each.
Players
Remake of: The Italian Job (1969)
After making a career out of unofficially remaking foreign films, director-duo Abbas Mustan are making their first official remake by adapting The Italian Job in Indian milieu.
What's new: The setting is new - New Zealand. There will be the customary Bollywood song-n-dance between the big heist. The actors are trying hard to be cool.
What's retained: With the official rights being purchased, of course the entire heist sequence should be the same.
Remake history: The 1969 Michael Caine-Noel Coward flick was remade in 2003 with Mark Wahlberg and Edward Norton.
Agneepath
Remake of: Agneepath (1990)
Karan Johar chose Hrithik Roshan over Abhishek Bachchan while remaking his home banner's Agneepath starring Amitabh Bachchan, which is considered cult cinema despite being a box-office dud.
What's new: Mithun Chakravarthy's award-winning supporting character is chopped off in the remake. Instead a new character of Rishi Kapoor is introduced who plays the most mean and menacing role of his life. Sanjay Dutt's Kancha Cheena goes bald. And there's Katrina Kaif who scorches the screen with Chikni Chameli (again remake of a Marathi song).
What's retained: This official remake claims to derive very little from the original other than basic elements (ironically unofficial remakes are copying more from the original ones).
Remake history: Mukul Anand's 1990 film was heavily inspired by Al Pacino's 'Scarface (1983) and seemingly Hrithik Roshan's version seems more close to the original with claims that Duggu dear pays homage to Pacino. Interestingly even Hollywood plans to remake Scarface sometime soon.
Rowdy Rathore
Remake of: Vikramarkudu (2006)
The artistically-inclined Sanjay Leela Bhansali takes a complete U-turn with his next co-production (with UTV) by coming up with an out-an-out commercial action masala flick on the lines of Dabangg or Wanted.
What's new: Akshay Kumar will try to give it a desi-feel with the chaste-Hindi tagline already reading 'faulad ki aulad' (son of iron).
What's retained: With Prabhu Dheva as the director, the action and entertainment should be full-on South style.
Remake history: Ravi Teja's Telugu hit 'Vikramarkudu' was also remade in Tamil as 'Siruthai' (2011) featuring Karthi and Tamanna.
Son of Sardar
Remake of: Maryada Ramanna (2010)
After the blockbuster success of Singham, Ajay Devgn gears up for another South remake also starring Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt and Juhi Chawla.
What's new: The setting is shifted to Punjab with Ajay Devgn playing a Sardar (as the title suggests). One can expect loads of culture-tradition endorsements and sarso ka khet to draw in the North Indian crowd.
What's retained: The basic plot and the action-comedy genre.
Remake history: Maryada Ramanna was supposedly remade from a 1923 silent English film 'Our Hospitality'.
Chashme Buddoor
Remake of: Chashme Buddoor (1981)
Studio 18 had the remake rights for some years and the project kept changing directors until David Dhawan finally chose to remake it. Pakistani actor-singer Ali Zafar (who has an amazing flair for comedy) will reprise Farooq Shaikh's role from the original while South actress Tapsee will play Deepti Naval's role. Siddharth (of Rang De Basanti fame) and Divyendu Sharma (Liquid from Pyaar Ka Punchnama) will play Ravi Baswani and Rakesh Bedi's part respectively. There's also Rishi Kapoor, Juhi Chawla and Anupam Kher
What's new: David Dhawan wants a new title but we hope he retains the original essence of the slice-of-life film that appealed for its minimalism.
What's retained: The basic plot and characters remain the same.
Remake history: Not many would know that Chashme Buddoor was remade in Malayalam as 'Paavam Paavam Rajakumaran' (1990) and in Tamil (by Priyadarshan) as 'Gopura Vasalile' (1991).
Kick
Remake of: Kick (2009)
Sajid Nadiadwala who bought the rights of the Telugu film has been patiently waiting for Salman Khan to give dates for the Hindi remake and seems like the project should finally 'kick'-start mid-2012. Sonakshi Sinha plays the female lead.
What's new: The makers plan to take the action to new level by changing the action-director from Vijayan Master to French maestro Philippe Guegan. Also there are plans to bring the project in 3D.
What's retained: While Shirish Kunder was to direct the remake earlier, now it will be made by the original director Surender Reddy.
Remake history: Ravi Teja's Telugu hit 'Kick' has already been remade in Tamil as 'Thillalangadi' (2010) starring Jayam Ravi and Tamannaah.
Ek Deewana Tha
Remake of: Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010)
Gautham Menon who once made Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein returns to directing a Hindi film after almost a decade. Prateik Babbar and Amy Jackson reprise the roles played by Simbhu and Trisha in the Tamil version.
What's new: The fresh casting.
What's retained: Everything from the director, composer (AR Rahman), technicians to even the dubbing artist for the female lead (Chinmayi) is the same in the Hindi version.
Remake history: Gautham Menon simultaneously shot a Telugu version of the film titled 'Ye Maaya Chesave' (2010) starring Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu while making the Tamil film.
Bol Bachchan
Remake of: Gol Maal (1979)
After establishing his brand as the director of the Golmaal series, Rohit Shetty is now allegedly remaking Hrishikesh Mukherji's classic comedy film Gol Maal, an all-time entertainer. Ajay Devgn and Abhishek Bachchan are supposedly reprising roles of Utpal Dutt and Amol Palekar from the cult film.
What's new: While the makers have bought the official rights of Gol Maal, they still claim that the film is merely inspired and not a remake. The screenplay has been completely redone and the rights have been bought just so that there isn't any copyright issue at the last moment.
What's retained: Perhaps the essence of Gol Maal then. Because recreating a masterpiece like it would be foolishness.
Remake history: Golmaal was remade by K Balachander in Tamil as 'Thullu Mullu' (1981) with Rajnikanth playing Amol Palekar's role.
Khel Khel Mein
Remake of: Khel Khel Mein (1975)
Sanjay Kapoor has bought the rights of the Rishi Kapoor-Neetu Singh-Rakesh Roshan classic thriller and intends to remake it. Shibani Bhatija is reworking on the screenplay. The cast is yet to be finalized.
Remake history: The same plot was remade by Abbas-Mustan as 'Khiladi' (1992) and the title-tag is still attached to Akshay Kumar.
Ko remake
Remake of: Ko (2011)
Akshay Kumar saw a special screening of the Tamil film 'Ko' and was so impressed with it that he has reportedly bought the rights for its Hindi remake. Anthony D'Souza (director of Blue) will be directing the remake in most probability.
Don Seenu remake
Remake of: Don Seenu (2010)
The story is about a young boy who watches Amitabh Bachchan's Don and is so inspired by the film that he decides to be the biggest don in the world. Ramesh Taurani of Tips Films has acquired the rights and in most probability Akshay Kumar shall be playing the lead.
Remakes that didn't take off
Seeta aur Geeta (1972) remake
Katrina Kaif was to be seen in a double role as Seeta and Geeta while reprising Hema Malini's classic act from the original. There was buzz that Akshay Kumar and Abhay Deol would play parts of Dharmendra and Sanjeev Kumar respectively. Dibakar Bannerjee was to direct the film and give a twist to the double-role drama. However following legal hassles, the project never took off.
Remake history: Seeta aur Geeta was the female version of the original double-role drama 'Ram aur Shyam' (1967) starring Dilip Kumar as the naive and the shrewd twins, separated at birth. The same plot was almost reiterated as 'Chaalbaaz' (1989) with Sridevi playing twin characters and 'Kishen Kanhaiya' (1990) with Anil Kapoor doing a double act.
Satte Pe Satta (1982) remake
Raj Sippy who directed the original Amitabh Bachchan flick came up with the idea of a remake some years ago. Sanjay Dutt was approached and then he took over the project as a producer with Soham Shah as the director. After Vidya Balan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit refused the film, Karisma Kapur is finalized for Hema Malini's role from original. Sanjay Dutt plays Big B's part. Shakti Kapoor's (who played one brother in the original) son Siddhanth Kapoor was approached for one of the brothers. It's still uncertain when the film would start.
Remake history: Satte Pe Satta was remake of the Hollywood flick 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' (1954). The film was recently remade in Marathi as 'Aamhi Saatpute' (2009) by Sachin Pilgaonkar who played the youngest brother in the Hindi version.
7 AM Arivu (2011) remake
There were reports that Aamir Khan was keen to remake this Tamil film directed by his Ghajini director AR Muragadoss starring Suriya and Shruti Hassan. In fact he also wanted to retain Shruti Hassan in the remake. However there is no official announcement on the same.
Andaz Apna Apna (1994) remake
Rumours were rife of remake of the cult comedy Andaz Apna Apna from different versions from an animated flick to a one which would bring Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan together. However none of that is true.
Courtesy : TOI
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