Few takers for Southern films’ remake rights amid flops
- Trade experts point to the surge in popularity of original southern films on streaming services, with many platforms also offering Hindi dubbed versions, as a factor in the decline of demand for remake rights.
Southern film remakes in Hindi, once a guaranteed recipe for box office success, are losing their appeal amid recent failures such as Selfiee, Shehzada, Vikram Vedha, and Jersey.
Trade experts point to the surge in popularity of original southern films on streaming services, with many platforms also offering Hindi dubbed versions, as a factor in the decline of demand for remake rights.
“From satellite to digital, the platforms on which southern films are available have multiplied, and therefore interest in remakes is relatively low,” film producer, trade and exhibition expert Girish Johar said. However, some southern film-makers are also retaining Hindi rights for themselves to cash in on a remake they can co-produce. For instance, Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Prithviraj Productions co-produced Selfiee, while Allu Aravind and Dil Raju backed Jersey.
“Hindi remake rights aren’t sounding very exciting (to film-makers) at the moment,” independent trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai said, adding that the market will still see momentum for a while.
Experts said the remake model is not disappearing entirely for now, as the rights for smaller, unknown films, which may not have been discovered beyond their home market, can still be bought for ₹1 crore- ₹3 crore.
However, many are negotiating with streaming platforms to gain higher compensation by selling multiple language rights, including Hindi, to them, trade experts like Johar said.
To be sure, while many point to the success of Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam 2, a remake of Mohanlal’s Malayalam film by the same name, the original had streamed on Amazon Prime Video directly, instead of releasing in cinemas, and wasn’t available in Hindi at all.
On the other hand, Akshay Kumar will be seen in the remake of Suriya’s Tamil film Soorarai Pottru which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada as well as in Hindi, titled Udaan.
Many producers are looking for smaller, relatively unknown films that haven’t been released or been watched outside their home state. These are cheaper to acquire and make for easier deals since not too many people are vying for them.
“Remake rights (of popular films) have skyrocketed in the past few years. What could earlier be acquired for ₹50 lakh is now costing the Hindi film producer up to ₹5 crore,” film producer and distributor Sunny Khanna said.
To be sure, though, some industry experts remain hopeful of remakes still drawing audiences.
“The profitability of the remake depends not only on box office numbers but also the sale of digital, satellite, and music rights individually. So sometimes, even if the film does not perform at the box office, the price it receives for selling other rights can help get good revenues,” said Rahul Puri, managing director of Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas. Puri added that the timing of the film’s release, in this case, remakes, is also a very important factor in the box office success.
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First Published:6 Mar 2023, 12:44 AM IST
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