Why is Bollywood obsessed with remakes?
26 October 2006 | Movies | No Comments
With Farhan Akhtar's highly publicised remake of the hugely successful "Don" finally hitting theatres, it seems there will be a deluge of remakes in Bollywood in the near future. More and more directors are toying with the idea of doing remakes of old classics and cult movies. The remakes in queue are - Ramgopal Varma's "Sholay", J.P. Dutta's "Umrao Jaan", Rituparno Ghosh's "Rahgeer", a remake of Dev Anand-starrer "Guide", Feroz Khan's "Qurbani", Raj Sippy's "Satte Pe Satta" and Sudhir Mishra is set to do a remake of his own thriller "Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin" in English.
Bollywood's track record of remaking old classics has been rather promising. Bimal Roy's take on P.C. Barua's "Devdas" was a huge hit and established Dilip Kumar as "Tragedy King". And, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's take on Roy's "Devdas" - a visual extravaganza released in 2002 - is considered to be one of the greatest films. But it was with Vidhu Vinod Chopra's "Parineeta" - a remake of an old classic of the same name - that the trend of doing remakes became a rage. Directed by Pradeep Sarkar, the love story was received well by the younger generation and went on to become the biggest hit of the year.
From the treatment of the subject to the handling of the emotional complexities of the three main protagonists - Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan and Sanjay Dutt - everything was done with panache by the first-time director. "I have been fascinated with 'Parineeta' the novel since the age of 10. I have made the film now because I was waiting for the right team. Pradeep Sarkar and Shantanu Moitra, the music composer are Bengalis and they have brought an authentic feel to the film. It's a film I am proud of. It is as good as 'Gone With The Wind'," Chopra was quoted as saying when the film was released. ….read more
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