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[Jai]

It seems to be a season of remakes in Bollywood. The filmmakers are making many remakes, some already on the floor while the others are yet to roll. Two of the well publicised films are Farhan Akhtar's 'Don' starring SRK and Priyanka and RGV's 'Sholay' starring Big B as Gabbar. Feroze Khan is considering remaking 'Qurbani' while Rituparno Ghosh wants to remake 'Guide'.

What do you guys think about this trend? Is it a good idea to remake an old film? Why are we seeing so many remakes and copies of Southern/Bengali/Hollywood films? is this because of lack of originality in Bollywood script writers?

I am personally not against remakes, but at the same time I do feel that some classics shouldn't be even attempted for a remake. For example, I don't consider 'Don' a classic but 'Sholay' is definitely one. So I can live with SRK doing a 'Khaike Paan Banaraswala', but I can't certainly imagine Big B or for that matter anyone else portraying Amjad Khan's role in 'Sholay'.

What's your opinion? Discuss.

[feverpitch]

Remakes, serials [Part II, III, IV etc of a film], franchisees etc. are more widely popular in Hollywood, Hong Kong, Britain [the Ealing comedies] — industries with a global outlook marketwise, and a focus on the plot. This has never been popular amongst Hindi/Bollywood filmmakers, partly I guess because the plot or narrative is not the strong point of such films. Basically, what we see in Bollywood is the rehashing of a few age old plots, with focus on the embellishments — ie, the songs, melodramatic dialogues and digressions that support the process of how the plot structure is unveiled. Thus it will be interesting to see how this new fashion, obviously inspired by Hollywood, plays out amongst the audience. I for one would not rule out their success. After all, the market has become quite well segmented in recent times, and more and more desis are living in the USA or Europe, trying to adapt to their lifestyle and expecting that to be reflected in the films they see. Who knows, remakes and the rest might just become the fashion soon!

[tombaan]

i disagree don is not a classic. it was one of the biggest hit and great entertaining movies in the time period it was released.
as for sholay the time it was released it was considered to be an imitation of western classics and called all sort of names....i think remakes are ok . btw don was directed by chandra barot who it was rumoured was a director for namesake while salim-javed written screen play with directions for even camera placement

[Jai]

Tombaan,
You may disagree with me, but there's a difference between a 'classic' and a 'hit' movie. To give you an example, the recent movie 'No Entry' was one of the biggest hits of the past 4-5 years. I was shocked when I got to know this fact. I found that movie very mediocore. May be our definitions of a 'classic' are different, but you get the gist I believe. There are movies like 'Sholay', 'Pyasa', 'Kagaz Ke Phool', 'Mughal E Azam' and then there are movies like 'Don', 'Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun', 'Baazigar' etc. which are are considered hits.

[Jai]

fever,
Good points. So I guess your answer is you are not opposed to the idea of remaking old films. As I have said earlier, I am ok with remakes of certain films, but not something like 'Sholay' where AB os going to play Gabbar. Do you think he can pull it off? I am looking forward to two sequels - Dhoom II and Phir Hera Pheri. I enjoyed Dhoom a lot. Let's see what they come up with in the sequel. Hera Pheri was one of the best comedies in the last decade and half. But the surprising thing is Priyadarshan is not directing the sequel. Not sure whether Satish Kaushik can do as good a job as Priyan.

[feverpitch]

fever,
Good points. So I guess your answer is you are not opposed to the idea of remaking old films. As I have said earlier, I am ok with remakes of certain films, but not something like 'Sholay' where AB os going to play Gabbar. Do you think he can pull it off? I am looking forward to two sequels - Dhoom II and Phir Hera Pheri. I enjoyed Dhoom a lot. Let's see what they come up with in the sequel. Hera Pheri was one of the best comedies in the last decade and half. But the surprising thing is Priyadarshan is not directing the sequel. Not sure whether Satish Kaushik can do as good a job as Priyan.

Am I happy with the situation? Nope!
Do I think it was inevitable? Yes, esp with more market capitalization in the industry.

[pieterSAN]

You guys should check out "Fight Club" in Hindi.

[dhruvdeepak]

not to do with remakes, but this short clip of the making of DDLJ:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/o8ZGrsIxoK0&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/o8ZGrsIxoK0&rel=0</a>

look at SRK's confidence: "This is my launch"