Film production house Panorama Studios International, led by Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak, has acquired the rights to remake Mohanlal’s Malayalam thriller Drishyam 2 in Hindi. The Jeethu Joseph directed film had released on Amazon Prime Video earlier this year.
The Hindi film industry, which started focusing on narratives targeting multiplex audiences, is lining up remakes of mass-market south Indian movies to bring crowds back to theatres. Banijay Asia-owned production house EndemolShine India has acquired the rights to two Tamil hits, Vijay-starrer Master and romantic fantasy film Oh My Kadavule.
Film-makers and studios point to the universally appealing genre of these films, irrespective of language.
“It is not really about south Indian or Hindi films, but good content which will entertain audiences. The two films that we have recently acquired Hindi rights for, are very different in terms of narrative style or genre, but appealed on a mass level to the audience," Abhishek Rege, chief executive officer, EndemolShine India had said in an earlier interview with Mint.
Mass-oriented content has always seen strong demand and that will continue, Rege had added, as is evident from the impressive box office numbers that Master has recently garnered.
“The box office will continue to demand popular films like this, especially in this post pandemic era, where cinemas are straining to get back on their feet and require strong footfall," Rege added.
Film trade and exhibition experts say while Bollywood has looked to south Indian films for inspiration earlier, and with much success, be it Kabir Singh (a remake of Arjun Reddy), Ajay Devgn's Drishyam or Shahid Kapoor’s upcoming sports drama Jersey, film-makers down south are far more keen to push their original films up north now. Dubbing in multiple languages, featuring a Bollywood star in a prominent role for better monetization of theatrical, satellite TV and digital rights and aggressive marketing and promotions make for key strategies.
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