For the past few years, Bollywood filmmakers have been banking on blockbuster South films and remaking them in Hindi.

Business Transformation Expert cum Bollywood Astrologer Hirav Shah says, “In the past decades, Bollywood has seen several South Indian film remakes created a storm, like the classic comedy Hera Pheri (2000) or Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007). To bank on the popularity of South’s biggest blockbusters, Bollywood has a number of Hindi remakes coming up.”

Hirav Shah adds, “Of late, Bollywood seems to be happily entering into the den of biopics and remakes. While the original films are available for the audiences to watch and they know the entire story already, the makers know that such films bank in celebrity status.”

 

Hirav Shah says, “Bollywood is one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world. It has been successfully influencing Indian society through social commentary, larger-than-life heroes, over-the-top villains, dancing, musical, fashion trends, and much more. However, throughout all these years, Bollywood has also been subjected to an immeasurable amount of criticism. For the past few years, the followers of Bollywood have constantly been questioning the creativity of the directors and the originality of scripts. It has come to that they are constantly copying South Indian Movies for original ideas. After seeing the constant remakes of south Indian films in Bollywood, fans have claimed that Bollywood is lacking authenticity.”

Last year, a couple of interesting South remakes in Hindi were announced, which are gearing up for a theatrical release in 2022 and 2023.

1) Vikram Vedha

Starring Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan in the lead roles, Vikram Vedha is the remake of the 2016 Tamil language blockbuster with the same title. The director duo Pushkar and Gayathri, who helmed the original version are, directed the Hindi remake also. The film is an intense drama with a cop and a gangster. Vikram Vedha is slated to hit the screens in September 2022.

2) HIT

HIT(Homicide Intervention Team) is the Telugu language super hit that was released in 2020. The film is being remade in Hindi with actor Rajkummar Rao in the lead role, and young director Sailesh Kolanu, who directed the original version, is helming the Hindi remake also. The film also stars Sanya Malhotra in a key role and went on the floors recently.

3) Jersey

Jersey is the Hindi remake of the 2019 Telugu film of the same title. The film is a sports drama based on the life of a Ranji cricketer. Gowtam Tinnanuri, who directed the original version, is the director of the Hindi version also. Co-starring Pankaj Kapur and Mrunal Thakur in key roles, the film was supposed to hit the screens on December 31, 2021, but is postponed indefinitely due to the sudden surge in the CoVID third wave cases across the country.

4) Driving Licence

2019 released superhit Malayalam drama, Driving Licence is being remade in Hindi as Selfie. Starring Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi in the lead roles, the shooting for Selfie kick-started recently. While Raj Mehta is the director, Prithviraj Productions, in association with Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, is bankrolling the film.

5) U-TURN

U-turn is the remake of the 2018 released Telugu language thriller of the same title, which is also a remake of the Kannada original. Being bankrolled by Ekta Kapoor’s production house, U-turn’s Hindi remake has Alaya F in the lead role.

6) Soorarai Pottru

2020 direct-to-OTT released Tamil language film, Soorarai Pottru, went on to grab tremendous response from Amazon subscribers. Sudha Kongara, who directed the original version, announced that she was going to remake the film in Hindi soon. But she is yet to announce the actor who will be

replacing Kollywood star Suriya in the Hindi remake.

7) Aruvi

The 2017 Tamil blockbuster Aruvi is being remade in Hindi. While Fatima Sana Shaikh is roped in to do the lead role, E Niwas of Shool fame is directed it. Applause Entertainment and Faith Films are jointly bankrolled Aruvi’s Hindi remake.

8) Helen

Malayalam seat-on-edge thriller Helen is being remade in Hindi. While Janhvi Kapoor is doing the lead role in the Hindi version of Helen, Boney Kapoor, in association with Zee Studios, is bankrolling it.

9) Kaithi

2019 released Tamil language cult hit Kaithi starring Karthi, Narain, and George Maryan in the key roles is being remade in Hindi. As of now, the official news came out that Ajay Devgn will be reprising Karthi’s role in the movie. More details will be out soon.

10) Master

Kollywood stars Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi’s 2021 film, Master, is a blockbuster success at the box office. The film is being remade in Hindi by Endemol Shine India, Murad Khetani, in collaboration with Seven Screen Studios.

Hirav Shah concludes by saying, “Remakes are often considered a safe bet in Bollywood, and movies from South India mostly hit the bullseye. We had countless super-successful movies in Bollywood, which were inspired or remade by Tamil, Telugu, Kannada blockbusters. Bollywood generally makes a remake of south Indian movies to offer new movie themes to the audiences and to cash in on what has already been deemed as a hit. But doing a remake of movies is not one-sided. The south Indian film industry making the remake of popular Bollywood movies has also been seen. It’s a give-and-take relationship that has been carried out for the past so many years.”