Will old be gold for Bollywood?

MUMBAI: After remaking a hundred Hollywood and South Indian hits, Bollywood filmmakers seem to be latching on to the idea that old classics are perhaps what they'd been looking for all along.

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI: After remaking a hundred Hollywood and South Indian hits, the Hindi film industry is now looking back and turning to itself for inspiration. Filmmakers seem to be latching on to the idea that old Indian classics are perhaps what they''d been looking for all along. <br />Sanjay Leela Bhansali''s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Devdas</span> is perhaps what started the ''looking back'' trend.With the film being India''s official entry to the Oscars, suddenly a lot of filmmakers are considering remakes. Pritish Nandy Communications is casting Salman Khan in a Rs 25 crore remake of Guru Dutt''s classic <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Sahib Biwi Aur Gulaam</span> while Venus was recently toying with the idea of asking Rajkumar Santoshi to recycle <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mughal-e-Azam</span> with Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh and Aishwarya Rai. Akbar Khan is almost ready to release Taj Mahal starring Manisha Koirala, Arbaaz Khan and Pooja Batra. And more such films are in the pipeline. <br />So will recycling Indian films prove to be a boon for the Hindi film industry? "Classics have been remade earlier too. I don''t think this is a new happening. It''s just a co-incidence that all these projects have come up together. What really matters is the script of any film and the storyline. If these are strong, I am willing to do it, classic or no classic," says Bharat Shah. Another trade analyst points out that even Vashu Bhagnani made a remake recently, but that didn''t do well. However, he does add that when Mehboob remade <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Aurat </span>as <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mother India</span>, it was a resounding hit.<br />This, however, is nothing new to Hollywood, which routinely recycles its old classics and hits. For example <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Maltese Falcon </span>and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Reservoir Dogs</span>, both critically acclaimed ''classics'', were remakes of older films. <br />Only time will tell whether old will really be gold for Bollywood, again.<br />(From <a href="http://filmfare.indiatimes.com">filmfare.com</a>)</div> </div>

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