How Global Remakes Fare In Bollywood

The Aamir Khan starrer Laal Singh Chaddha releasing on August 11 is an official remake of Forrest Gump.

It is one of the rare instances of a Hindi film for which official rights have been taken from a Hollywood biggie, otherwise back in time one used to see numerous unofficial remakes happening in Bollywood.

What is striking is the fact that amongst these handful of official remakes as well, Hollywood does not have a monopoly -- there are Korean, Spanish and Italian films as well.

 

Bharat: Remake of the South Korean film Ode To My Father
Box office collection: Rs 211.07 crores/Rs 2.11 billion

When Salman Khan picked up this remake, one waited to see what would he would bring on screen.

After all, the actor was playing a man across different age groups, which is quite similar to what Aamir Khan is doing in Lal Singh Chaddha.

Ali Abbas Zafar's film is the highest grossing Hindi remake of a foreign movie.

 

Bang Bang: Remake of Hollywood's Knight and Day
Box office collection: Rs 181 crores/Rs 181 billion

Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz's Knight and Day was a breezy action romcom affair.

Director Siddharth Anand stayed true to its essence in Bang Bang which did good business.

If not for its budget which was quite high for films made during that time, the Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif starrer could have been an even bigger hit.

 

Tubelight: Remake of the Hollywood film Little Boy
Box office collection: Rs 120 crores/Rs 1.2 billion

Salman Khan picked another sensitive Hollywood film Little Boy and remade it as Tubelight.

Director Kabir Khan said only the core fabric of Little Boy was adapted into Tubelight and the overall treatment was entirely different.

Even though it earned Rs 120 crores, Tubelight is Salman Khan's lowest grosser in a long time.

 

Badla: Remake of the Spanish film The Invisible Guest
Box office collection: Rs 87.99 crores/Rs 879.9 million

The Spanish film The Invisible Guest was available on OTT when Badla arrived in theatres.

That can harm a suspense film, but then somehow audiences hadn't heard of the original and what Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu brought on screen was a complete surprise for them.

 

Brothers: Remake of Hollywood's Warrior
Box office collection: Rs 85 crores/Rs 850 million

Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra came together for Brothers, an official remake of the Hollywood film Warrior.

The Tom Hardy-Joel Edgerton film was about two boxer brothers and when it came to this Bollywood remake backed by Karan Johar, Director Karan Malhotra brought in MMA on the Indian screens for the first time.

Unfortunately, the film didn't do well.

 

Tees Maar Khan: Remake of the Italian film After the Fox
Box office collection: Rs 68 crores/Rs 680 million

That Tees Maar Khan was a remake of a foreign film was a well kept secret till a couple of days before the release.

It was then revealed that the Farah Khan directed film was inspired by an Italian film, After the Fox.

A comic caper, it did take a good opening and eventually did average business.

 

Players: Remake of the Hollywood film The Italian Job
Box office collection: Rs 29 crores/Rs 290 million

Abbas-Mustan, who had unofficially adapted quite a few Hollywood films in the past, bought the rights to The Italian Job and added their quintessential 'twist pe twist' tadka in Players.

The Abhishek Bachchan-Bobby Deol led thriller was good fun, but didn't do well in theatres.

 

We Are Family: Remake of the Hollywood film Stepmom
Box office collection: Rs 21.64 crores/Rs 216.4 million

Before Brothers, Karan Johar had bankrolled another official remake, We Are Family, which had its origins in the Julia Roberts-Susan Sarandon-Ed Harris starrer Stepmom.

Kareena Kapoor, Kajol and Arjun Rampal stepped into the respective parts in this Siddharth Malhotra directed film which ended up doing decent business amongst city audiences.

 

Dhamaka: Remake of the Korean film The Terror Live
OTT release

Dhamaka -- an official remake of the Korean film The Terror Live -- was a well made Netflix film by Ram Madhvani.

Kartik Aaryan fitted into his part quite well and showed a different side of his acting persona.

For the actor who has done several romcoms, this was an intense affair.

 

Rambo: Remake of the Hollywood film Rambo
To go on the floors

More than a couple of years ago it was announced that Director Siddharth Anand would remake Sylvester Stallone's Rambo in Hindi with Tiger Shroff.

The film's First Look poster was unveiled as well. Thereafter, Siddharth made War with Tiger and Hrithink Roshan and is currently shooting Pathan with Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham

When will Rambo go on the floors?