Chennai: With plagiarism charges riding high on Tamil filmmakers these days, many producers consider it a safe bet to buy remake rights from other languages for their ventures.
At least half-a-dozen upcoming movies in Kollywood are remakes of successful films from other industries.
The recently-released Jyothika starrer ‘Kaatrin Mozhi‘ is a remake of Hindi flick ‘Tumhari Sulu‘. A Vidya Balan starrer, it spoke about the passion of a housewife to become a RJ and how her domestic needs stand between her and her desire. Directed by Radha Mohan, the Tamil version has won appreciation from various quarters for being a faithful remake.
Even Vidya Balan wished the crew. She said, “I am extremely happy and honoured to know that Jyotika is reprising my role from ‘Tumhari Sulu‘ in the Tamil remake. All the best to Jyotika, Radha Mohan, producer G Dhananjayan and everyone who are associated with the project. I am eager and excited to watch this film.”
And there are talks that Ajith may reprise Amitabh Bachchan’s role in the Tamil version of ‘Pink‘. Sources say that acclaimed Bollywood producer Boney Kapoor will bankroll the project. However no official confirmation has been made yet. And already on the floors is Tamil version of Hindi hit ‘Queen‘.
The Kangana Ranaut-starrer will see Kajal Agarwal playing the lead here. Speaking about the film titled ‘Paris Paris‘, Kajal, says, “I watched ‘Queen‘ and was totally engrossed by Kanganas performance. The story is about a girl and her metamorphosis from a larva into a butterfly. I have been wanting to do such a role for long.”
Ramesh Aravind, who helms the movie, says, “‘Paris Paris‘ is not a remake of ‘Queen‘ verbatim. Some changes have been made to the script to suit local sensibilities.”
Vishal is playing the lead in ‘Ayogyan‘, a Tamil remake of Telugu blockbuster ‘Temper‘.
And Simbu’s ‘Vandha Rajava Varuven‘, directed by Sundar C is inspired by Tollywood hit ‘Attarintikki Daredi‘.
Much recently, filmmaker Muthiah of ‘Komban‘ fame bought the remake rights of Kannada hit ‘Tagaru‘. Dhruv, son of actor Vikram, will make his debut in Bala-directed ‘Varma‘, a remake of Telugu hit ‘Arjun Reddy‘.
According to Kannan, an industry tracker, “It is a safe bet today. There won’t be complaints of plagiarism. Also remake of a successful film makes the job easier and safer too.”
“On the other side, it shows clearly that we lack good writers. Gone are those days when we had good screenplay and story writers. In today’s competitive industry, there is little time left for a filmmaker to make a movie. Hence they go for redoing successful stories from other languages,” he adds.