MUMBAI: A dearth of original storylines and a series of box-office flops with unconventional themes is pushing India’s Bollywood film producers to play it safe. A series of remakes of classics from the ’70s and ’80s are set to hit theatres in coming months.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan acts in a remake of 1970s hit film “Don”, which starred Amitabh Bachchan.
Reigning beauty queen Aishwarya Rai takes the lead role in “Umraojaan”, which was a box-office hit and a critically acclaimed movie in the mid-1980s.
“There is a shortage of original subjects in Bollywood today,” says Amod Mehra, film and trade analyst.
“Producers probably find safety in picking on something already touched earlier. We are going the Hollywood way ... they too went about remaking classic Hollywood films,” he says.
Bachchan himself will star in a remake of his 1975 mega-hit “Sholay”, now to be directed by Bollywood maverick Ram Gopal Varma, who produced a recent success with Bachchan again in “Sarkar”.
Bollywood has seen a spate of unconventional films dealing with adultery, socio-political issues, period heroes, the supernatural, sci-fi, sex and urban lifestyles.
“Unconventional films are gaining momentum but with a limited audience. It will take some time for them to entrench along with a typical commercial film,” says Mehra.
“In some cases fresh ideas exist but writers are not capable of converting these into good film scripts. Hence producers feel it is time to stick to a formula and remake old Bollywood classics.”
The trend began with this year’s release of “Parineeta”, a winner in 1950s. The movie did average business.
“Paheli” quickly followed in June. It was based on a “re-imagining” of “Duvidha” which was released in the early 70s.
Now five other films, “Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam, “Arth” “Don”, “Umraojaan” and “Sholay” are in the works.
However the remake formula is a not guarantee of success.
Over the years, Hollywood remakes have often disappointed, with key failures being three versions of “The Prisoner of Zenda”, the 1998 version of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic “Psycho”, Japanese monster movie “Godzilla” and a 2001 version of “Planet of the Apes”, which originally starred Charlton Heston in 1968.
The pundits are struggling to predict what works for Bollywood today.
In 2002, just one movie horror flick “Raaz” scored a real hit. In 2003, it was sci-fi theme “Koi Mil Gaya”, based loosely on Steven Spielberg’s “ET”.
In 2004, sex and relationship-based flicks hit Indian screens, but one of the biggest hits was gang-biker movie “Dhoom”.
“No one knows what works today at box office,” says Bollywood analyst Taran Adarsh. “The movies which did well this year are from completely different genres.”
They included “Black” about a physically challenged girl, “Bunty Aur Bubbly”, a Bonnie and Clyde influenced movie and “Sarkar”, inspired by Hollywood blockbuster “The Godfather”.
Shah Rukh Khan is talking up the remake mould.
“I grew up watching ‘Don’ and I wanted to be a hero after watching it. It is like a tribute and today’s children may enjoy the story retold. It may draw flak but will start a new trend of remaking old classics,” he says.
Ram Gopal Varma, set to remake “Sholay” is also tripping down memory lane.
“I saw Sholay at least five times when it was (first) released. I want to make that film for today’s generation,” he says.
Industry analysts estimate the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai suffered losses of 1.5 billion rupees in the first half of 2005 compared with 800 million rupees for the same period last year. Only 10 of the 105 films produced between January and June this year recovered their costs at the box office.—AFP