Are taboo relationships the criteria for M'wood remakes?

The latest such project in the offing is the remake of the 1968 superhit, Bharyamaar Sookshikukka, which had Prem Nazir and Sheela in the lead
While Mollywood has moved on to more original subjects over the past few years, a one-off yesteryear remake still manages to create ripples at the box office; like last year's Rathinirvedam. The latest such project in the pipeline would be the farthest that Mollywood has reached back ' the remake of the 1968 superhit Bharyamaar Sookshikukka.
About the project, director Rajasenan says, 'Yes, I am planning a remake of the movie but nothing is confirmed yet. There are still a lot of discussions to be held before I can sit down and talk about the venture.'
While the director refuses to say why he chose to remake the Prem Nazir-starrer, the flick's plot revolving around the consequences of extra-marital affairs could be one of the prime reasons why he thought that the 1968 movie is still relevant.
In Bharyamaar Sookshikukka, Nazir plays a singer who comes between the happily-married life of the characters played by Sheela and Ummer and ultimately ends up cheating the female lead.
The critical and commercial acclaim of recent films such as Cocktail, Traffic and Ee Adutha Kaalathu, which also had extra-marital relations as a major story-thread, has shown that Mollywood audience and filmmakers are no more averse to such topics.
In the last three years, Mollywood has had remakes of yesteryear flicks like Neelathamara, Rathinirvedam, Nidra and Rasaleela. Interestingly, most of these films focussed on relationships and subjects that were considered taboo in Kerala society.
While Neelathamara, according to its remake's director Lal Jose, addresses love and lust without any prejudice, Rasaleela dealt with sexual harassment of a young boy and sexually-transmitted diseases, while Rathinirvedam was about a teenager falling in love with an older woman. So, are the remakes chosen based on the sensuous nature of the story and the forbidden nature of the relationships? 'No,' says Suresh Kumar, producer of the remakes of Neelathamara and Rathinirvedam. 'These are love stories that are relevant even today. In fact, we have toned down the remakes from the original and stayed away from anything titillating.'
Suresh also says that choosing a forbidden relationship as a theme for the story doesn't ensure a box-office hit just because the youth may associate with it. 'The majority secretly enjoy these movies, but publicly oppose it. If you look at the theatre revenue of Rathinirvedam, it is lesser but the DVD sales have peaked,' he claims.
Original
Rasaleela (1975) Cast: Kamal Haasan, Jayasudha Director: N Sankaran Nair
Rathinirvedam (1978) Cast: Jayabharathi, Krishnachandran Director: Bharathan
Neelathamara (1979) Cast: Ambika, Ravikumar Director: Yusuf Ali Kechery
Nidra (1981) Cast: Vijay Menon, Shantikrishna Director: Bharathan
Remake
Rasaleela (2012) Cast: Darshan, Prathishta Director: Majeed Marancherry
Rathinirvedam (2011) Cast: Shweta Menon, Sreejith Ravi Director: TK Rajeev Kumar
Neelathamara (2009) Cast: Archana Kavi, Kailash Director: Lal Jose
Nidra (2012) Cast: Sidharth Bharathan, Rima Kallingal Director: Sidharth Bharathan