Actor Abhishek Bachchan defended the Hindi film industry’s proclivity for remakes of South films, claiming that the ‘trade of content’ is reciprocal, since South companies’ replication Bollywood films as well.
The phenomenon of Bollywood remakes of South film industry hits is nothing new. It’s been going on for years, if not decades now. Even now, remakes of famous South films like Drishyam 2 and Shehzaada are in the works. However, while Bollywood is sometimes chastised for not being ‘creative’ and pandering to the tried-and-true, not everyone agrees. Actor Abhishek Bachchan defended the Hindi cinema business in a recent interview, saying that ideas are exchanged both ways.
Abhishek has appeared in a number of multilingual films, including Yuva and Raavan, and his Hindi feature Dhoom has been remade—or at least inspired films—in the South. In a recent interview, he stated that Bollywood does not duplicate South films because of a lack of content.
“Are you telling me that Hindi films aren’t being remade in the South?” Abhishek asked IndianExpress.com. That is an unfair question since the response is defensive no matter what you reply. The Indian film business encompasses all of us. Although we operate in separate languages, we are both in the same business. We’re all catering to the same crowd. Labeling any film business isn’t totally accurate.
Hindi and other language films have always been recreated. It’s not a new occurrence. There has always been a constant interchange of content. There’s nothing wrong about it.”
The actor commented on the recent success of South films such as Pushpa: The Rise, RRR, and KGF: Chapter 2 in the Hindi belt, saying that such films have always performed well in the Hindi belt regardless of language. “These films are now performing so well,” he remarked. They have, nevertheless, always performed admirably. In the South, our films have done well. It’s not a new occurrence. We come from a big family. As a result, content interchange is unavoidable. Because there is a scarcity of ideas in a particular industry, the exchange does not take place.
Abhishek was most recently seen in Dasvi, which was released on April 7 on Netflix and JioCinema. Tushar Jalota directed the film, which starred Abhishek as a politician in prison who is pushed to finish his class 10 by a constable. The film also featured Nimrat Kaur and Yami Gautam.
