Era of Remakes in Bollywood

Suddenly it is a trend catching up with the film makers in Mumbai. The age of remakes is now here. Devdas, Don, Umrao Jaan, Sholey and the list goes on. Though the box office results of these 'remade' films are not so encouraging still the experiments are going on.

Remade films are the flavour of the season with those extravagant sets and costumes overshadowing their original. But when a film is remade, the comparisions between the original and the remade is inevitable. And the result is that the newer one fails to impress the critics and even the audience to some extent (if they had seen the original earlier) in most occasions. Younger generation may be thrilled to see their favourite hero in a new role. But not for those who had seen the original. When I saw Don a week ago this was the case since I had seen the original Amitabh starrer. One has to be careful when choosing the leads for their remade version as today most of the actors in Bollywood are stereotyped for their typical roles. So it is hard to accept Shah Rukh as Don in place of Amitabh as SRK is most known for his romantic roles.

Generally the films in an era are inspired by the socio-economic condition of the nation at that time. So can you imagine a movie like Coolie which starred angry man of that time Amitabh remade today? At that time nation was in the phase of industrialization and labour unions. So the film suited those circumstances and was well appreciated. But not now. Next in the pipeline of remade films is Sholey. Dont know how the audience will accept this seemingly misadventure with Big B who played Jai in the original playing the bad man Gabbar Singh here!! This week released Umrao Jaan also met with the same fate as other remakes with critics.

In the case of remakes with the plot already known to the viewers the film cast is under severe inspection as there is a comparision between the two versions. In my opinion when you are about to make a remake it should be a basic idea from the original with the film story relevant to today's scenario. With the media blowing the remade films out of proportion naturally the expectations are also high. Atleast till the movie is released film makers should not reveal it as a remake. But there is a catch here, you are about get to lot of publicity and hype if it is a projected as a remake right from day one. So there is a thin line between the two. So it should be a fine balance between retaining your fresh ideas, not merely copying from the original and living up to the expectations. As they say rather than remake, 'inspiration' is a better word.

But one question still remains unanswered. Does the era of remakes indicate the absence of fresh ideas? This is the question that is yet to be answered by the filmmakers.

Mr.Amitabh Bachchan is now Dr.Amitabh Bachchan with the Delhi University awarding him honorary doctorate. Congratulations Dr.Amitabh Bachchan.

Regards
Raveesh