One of the best-known Indian film directors, Ram Gopal Varma has created a series of controversies with his tweet about the poor fate of remakes of South Indian films in Bollywood. According to the filmmaker, the South should start focusing on dubbing the movies in multiple languages instead of giving their remake rights to Bollywood.
In his tweet, Varma said, “The DISASTROUS fate of JERSEY film in Hindi signals the DEATH of REMAKES for the simple reason it has been proved multiple times that dubbed films like #Pushpa #RRR #KGF2 are doing far better than originals, if the content is good #DeathOfRemakes.”
The popular filmmaker took his twitter handle to justify his stand and his use of the hashtag ‘DeathOfRemakes’. He published five more tweets to explain himself.
In an interview with ETimes, the filmmaker said, “It’s not about most remakes being flops. Jersey is an example because it’s the latest remake. The makers always want to remake a South film with a local star. The Hindi producers will cast a Hindi star, take the story from a Telugu star’s movie and remake it. That’s what happened with Jersey is as well.”
He added, “Jersey was made with an initial budget of 100 crores, that too a remake of a Telugu film featuring Nani. Today, all Telugu films, in their original format are working well. Whether it’s films featuring Ram Charan, Yash, NTR or Prabhas. Instead of casting a Hindi star and spending 100 crores, they could have just spent money on dubbing the Telugu version and releasing it in the North. Most Telugu dubbed movies are working well in the North markets. That could have been done in merely 10 lakhs.”
While explaining his use of ‘DeathOfRemakes’, he said, “This will affect the business because in the future no one will want to sell remake rights, and instead South producers will prefer to try their luck with dubbed versions instead. If Bollywood doesn’t know how to make popular films like SS Rajamouli and Prashant Neel then they’re going to have to rely on remake rights. But if they don’t get the rights, then that’s the death of remakes.”
