The trend of remakes began with Chachi 420 and then was revived with movies like Singham and Drishyam which became box-office hits. But now with the abundance of streaming services available, it is so simple to watch the original online instead. So why give us a sub-par remake that has no soul as compared to the original?
Remember Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag? This movie was a remake of Sholay and it was so horrifying that Amitabh Bachchan himself called it a mistake. The movie made only Rs 8 Crore at the box-office and went down in history as the worst Bollywood film ever. So maybe we should have stopped with the remakes back in 2007.
Then came Billu, an official remake of the critically acclaimed and loved Malayalam film Kadha Parayumbol. The film starred Shah Rukh Khan and Irrfan Khan in lead roles and STILL nothing could save this sinking ship which only made Rs 46.65 Crore globally, a small sum compared to these actors’ super-hits.
There was also Players, a disappointing remake of The Italian Job starring Sonam Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Abhishek Bachchan. And lastly, We Are Family which was a remake of Stepmom and starred Arjun Rampal, Kareena Kapoor and Kajol, all successful actors who couldn’t hold this film together as it made only Rs 22 Crore in total.
Did Bollywood learn its lesson from these films? No, it has another set of remakes lined up for 2020, which were all hits that most of us have already seen. For example, a Dil Bechara or The Girl On The Train are based on brilliant movies which were adapted from best-selling novels.
However, it is completely unnecessary for a 34-year-old Sushant Singh Rajput to play Augustus in the Hindi version of The Fault in Our Stars (read Dil Bechara). Who are you possibly going to convince that this man is the protagonist of a Young adult / teen novel? The star cast is the least of our worries though, because these films are often a scene by scene copy, bringing nothing new to the big screen.
On the other hand, movies like Laxmmi Bomb and Jersey are remakes of regional Indian movies that did well at the box-office. But do we need another OK Jaanu? Why have we lost interest in original scripts and find it easier to pick up tried and tested movies. This lazy effort is sending us down a path of remakes that will probably ruin the memorable originals.
Next in line for 2020 is Laal Singh Chaddha, an official remake of the iconic film Forrest Gump, where Aamir Khan will be essaying the lead role and Kareena Kapoor will play his love interest. But do we need a desi-version of this beautiful film? Honestly, no.
The worst of the lot happen to be the makers who are copying aka ‘adapting’ from their OWN films. Love Aaj Kal 2 is just a millennial version of Love Aaj Kal which was also made by Imtiaz Ali. The trailer offers nothing new as the story follows the same format of parallel storylines of love and heartbreak.
And last but not the least is David Dhawan adapting his own hit from 1995, Coolie No. 1 to remake it with his son, Varun Dhawan in 2020. It was bad enough that they ruined Judwaa, do we really need them to ruin basically every movie from our childhood?