Bollywood loves southern film remakes but that’s not true the other way around. Why?

Bollywood may have picked several films originally made in southern languages for remakes over the years, but producers from India’s south prefer not to redo Hindi movies. A rare such example in recent years, Mr Bachchan, the Telugu copy of Ajay Devgn-starrer Raid, failed to find any draw at the box office. Trade experts attribute it to a different target audience, star appeal and wider familiarity with original Hindi content.

‘Hindi films not in huge demand for remake’

“Hindi films are not in huge demand to be remade in the south anymore because those are industries known for mass-market cinema and their own way of telling stories. They may not see value in remaking Hindi films for their audiences,” Rahul Puri, managing director, Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas, said.

Viewers in the southern states are also particular about what they want their stars to do on screen and watching top actors take up roles already essayed by Bollywood names may not sit well with the fans, Puri said.

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Hindi films have increasingly begun to cater to niche, up-market audiences as opposed to adopting universally appealing themes that southern cinema usually prefers.

To be sure, in the 1970s and 80s, actors like Rajinikanth had featured in a host of Hindi film remakes, such as Shankar Salim Simon (a remake of Amar Akbar Anthony), Billa (Don) and Velaikkaran (Namak Halal), among others. In recent years, few Hindi films have been picked up for southern language remakes, except for Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Pink that found some success in the Tamil (Nerkonda Paarvai in 2019) and Telugu (Vakeel Saab in 2021) versions.

The failure of films like Mr Bachchan demonstrates incorrect selection of content, according to Girish Johar, film producer, trade and exhibition expert. “Raid was anyway an urban thriller that may not appeal to sensibilities of tier-three and tier-four audiences,” he said. “So, trying to commercialize that kind of a subject may have backfired.”

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Unlike several southern language films whose release may be limited to their native markets, Hindi movies see wider showcasing across territories as diverse as Hyderabad, Kochi and Ernakulam, ensuring that viewers are already aware of the original movies, Johar said. “At least the top multiplexes in these regions play Hindi films.”

On the other hand, apart from a few popular or critically acclaimed titles, movies made in regional languages may not always travel to Hindi-speaking audiences, he said.

Even in Bollywood, the box office failure of films like Jersey, HIT: The First Case, Tadap, Vikram Vedha and Bachchhan Paandey, all copies of Tamil and Telugu films, has cast uncertainty about the over-used formula over the past two years.

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Trade experts point out the surge in adoption of entertainment on video streaming services during the pandemic has made the original films, dubbed in different languages or with subtitles, easily available to audiences. Yet, many still see value in remakes if marketed and localized well.

“There will be exceptions on both sides,” said film distributor and exhibitor Akshaye Rathi, “but if the remake is marketed and pitched well, there could be some novelty to the film despite dubbed OTT versions.”