Kabir Singh has become a huge blockbuster in Bollywood since its release in late June 2019. Many critics of Bollywood movies raised a potent question about the filmmaking craft in Hindi. They singled out the aspect of lack of interesting stories and scripts in Bollywood, which is making the people there to depend on successful South movies in the form of remaking them.
A new debate started in Bollywood about the dryness of Hindi film storytellers to create compelling tales with a gripping screenplay. During the first half of 2019, Bollywood could only make a few blockbusters which crossed the Rs. 100 crore mark at the box office. The fact Kabir Singh is the first Hindi remake of a South Indian movie film in 2019 now on the verge of crossing the Rs. 100 crores mark, proves again the fact the South film industry is the king– when it comes to making a commercial hit and making it universal.
The South Remake Saga: Beginning of It
The successful remake formula followed by the Bollywood film makers is currently this:
- Firstly, observe which, Telugu, Tamil or Malayalam film has a good storyline, screenplay and direction. Then wait for the movie from the South to garner a great run at the box office. Then, purchase the Hindi remake rights of the movie.
- Secondly, tweak the movie’s screenplay a bit to suit the Hindi audience.
- Now, hire a regular commercially viable director from Bollywood for the Hindi remake.
It is then left then to the commercial producers generally to hire a young crop of directors, to direct the movie, when it comes to a remake. However, if this proves the other way, then there is only one way out—get the original director of the hit South movie to direct the remake.
Hence, Bollywood invented this win-win scenario to boost the chances of the film becoming a hit.
Salman Khan: The Biggest Beneficiary Of South Remakes
If anyone could be dubbed as the man who made the most from remaking South movies, it is Salman Khan. Be it his Pokiri remake Wanted or his Ready, Kick or Biwi No. 1, Salman Khan resurrected his career with a lot of South remakes, mostly remakes of Telugu hits like Pokiri, Kick and Ready.
Now, with every producer from Karan Johar to Boney Kapoor vying with one another to purchase the remake rights of a Telugu or Tamil film, the South is arguably the haven for Bollywood to take scripts and make millions in Hindi.
Karan Johar made a bomb by presenting the Bahubali series in the North belt and now, he bought the remake rights of the Nani starrer Jersey.
Ajay Devgn’s Singham, Aamir Khan’s Ghajini and now, Shahid Kapoor’s Kabir Singh are a standing testimony for the brilliance of the South Indian film industry to provide quality stuff to the audience. So, the real hero is the South cinema, which is supplying scripts on a platter to the North to savor.
The Tollywood industry continues to don its role of the benefactor to Bollywood, which a lot of young cinegoers are noticing. These cinegoers are openly voicing their views about this trend of remakes. The South is more than happy to disseminate its actors, technicians and now, directors, to the rescue of Bollywood.
May this magnanimity continue eternally.
Hail the South!
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