Forty years after Amitabh Bachchan ushered in the angry young man to whistles and cheers in Zanjeer, its writers Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan are channelling the character's inner rage. Furious and unrelenting, Bollywood's most successful scriptwriter duo filed a suit in the Bombay High Court this month, seeking a stay on the release of its remake.
Their grouse is that producers Amit Mehra (whose father Prakash Mehra directed and produced the original) and Reliance Entertainment didn't seek their consent for the remake, even though they hold the copyright of the 'literary work'. While the 1973 film starred Bachchan, Dadasaheb Phalke award-winner Pran and Jaya Bachchan, the remake stars Telugu star Ram Charan Teja and Priyanka Chopra.
Salim-Javed claim they have been trying to resolve the matter for a year now. Says 68-year-old Akhtar, "We tried speaking to Amit. When that didn't help, we first went to the Film Writers Association and then the Federation of Western India Cine Employees, which also agreed that the rights belonged to us. But the producers didn't relent. When we own its rights, how can someone make it in Telugu and Hindi without our consent?"
It's not that the legendary scriptwriters are against remakes. Khan, 77, points out that a remake is a win-win situation for writers. "If it works, it proves your story is still relevant. If it doesn't, people say 'yaar woh original kitni achchi thi'. Today, though, most remakes are made not out of love for the film, but because it earns the makers pots of money."
The issue is also one of intellectual property. Khan says that when he and Akhtar scripted Seeta Aur Geeta, they drew inspiration from Ram Aur Shyam, which was also rehashed in Chaalbaaz, Kishen Kanhaiya and Judwaa. Ram Aur Shyam too, was based on a book. But Zanjeer, he argues, was "a totally original script". "Are they using Amitabh Bachchan's acting or Kalyanji-Anandji's music?" asks Khan, "No, they are using Salim-Javed's script."
The two insist they are fighting this — they have sought a Rs 6 crore compensation — to set a precedent. "We have done well for ourselves, but what about writers who haven't?"
The share-holders
The returns are so huge that buying rights to films (with little intention of remaking it) might be more profitable than investing in tech shares. A source says actor Sanjay Dutt's former secretary Dharam Uberoi, who bought the rights of Basu Chatterjee's Lakhon Ki Baat (starring Sanjeev Kumar, Anita Raaj and Farooq Sheikh) for a mere Rs 11 lakh in 2009, is quoting a price of Rs 1 crore from producers Viacom 18 (Uberoi won't confirm details till the deal is sealed). The production house has also bought the rights to Gul Anand's Jalwa, again from 'investors'. Trade analyst Amod Mehra says: "The family-type light entertainers are the ones which are in most demand. People are scampering to buy the rights of such films because they are sure-fire hits at any point of time."
Re-branding humor
In the war over remakes, the battles are not fought over credit and money alone. Veterans associated with the original argue that remakes offend their sensibilities as well. Writer-director Sai Paranjpye, furious over the remake of her 1981 classic Chashme Buddoor, went cold on friend Jayshree Makhija for selling its rights to Viacom 18 (which released the movie last week). What upset the 75-year-old Padma Bhushan awardee was that it was David Dhawan, known for slapstick, double entendre comedies, who was touching her classic. She moved the High Court against its release. Her lawyer Ravi Kadam says, "According to the statutory right in The Copyright Act, you can't alter an author's work in a way which brings her disrepute. Sai felt the remake had sexist jokes that degraded women, defaming her."
Masala writers Farhad-Sajid, who have written the dialogue for the remake, disagree. "It's the language this generation speaks. The dialogue is full of funny punch lines because that's what the audience wants — non-stop entertainment."
Director Subhash Ghai, whose iconic 1980 film Karz (which was inspired by The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud) was remade 28 years later as the cringe-inducing Himesh Reshammiya-starrer Karzzzz, finds the outrage misplaced. "Filmmakers of every generation have a different interpretation. It's foolish to compare the two or feel hurt over a 'bad' remake," he says, adding that what matters to him is that the original Karz is still remembered. Though he argues that imitation is the best form of flattery, he admittedly hasn't seen the remake yet.
Though Ram Gopal Varma infamously remade producer GP Sippy's Sholay, the disastrous Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag didn't come through before meeting stiff resistance from Sippy's grandson Sascha, who moved court against, among other things, its usage of the words 'Sholay' or 'Gabbar Singh'.
Gulzar's Angoor, inspired by Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors, is set to be remade by Rohit Shetty — known for his Golmaal brand of humour. Gulzar says classics, not hits, must be chosen for a remake. "Just because a film has worked in its time is no reason for it to be remade. Classics have potential for a re-interpretation. That's why a Devdas or a Chitralekha get remade," he says.
Not all remakes ruffle the industry's feathers. Farhan Akhtar's Don and Karan Malhotra's Agneepath have managed to strike box office gold and also please most quarters. Malhotra, a fan of the original, says the Hrithik Roshan-starrer had a new graph and new characters, but retained the original's emotion. The mother-son, father-son conflicts were retained, as was the protagonist's internal struggles. Even the film's defining dialogue "Naam Vijay Chauhan..." was kept after a lot of thought.
"What matters is the intention. A remake must not try to surpass the original. A remake also can't be devised with an eye on profits. The process must start with the creative and end with money," he says. What about walking the tightrope? "This old guard-new guard conflict is like the tension between a father and a son. Neither is wrong."
— With inputs by Shubha Shetty Saha
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