Bollywood'S best: off the beaten path

Manjula Negi / TNN / Mar 27, 2006, 21:13 IST

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While the young breed of filmmakers in Bollywood have bigger and better ideas, the big names are cashing in on remakes.

While the young breed of filmmakers in Bollywood have bigger and better ideas, the big names are cashing in on remakes.
The big 'uns have skewed ideas while the small guys pocket the original. In case you're wondering what we're talking about, think Bollywood.
All the big names - from Farhan Akhtar and J P Dutta to Ram Gopal Varma and Rituparno Ghosh are making either sequels or remakes.
But it is the small-budget filmmakers like Rajat Kapoor (Mixed Doubles); Sujoy Ghosh (Jhankaar Beats); Somnath Sen (Leela) and very recently, Homi Adajania (Being Cyrus) who've capitalised on the Big Idea.

Their films don't have the publicity budgets to be splashed across nation's cities but one cannot deny that they've done well commercially.
Ultimately, there are only six-seven formulas in filmmaking and that all (well, almost all) the classics have been remade at some point in time - the world over!
So why gun for the big guys in Mumbai who are er.. re-making a Sholay, an Umrao Jaan or even a Don (can't even bear to bring up the inimitable Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam yet)?
All would be well, except that why would they have crores riding on a story which is already ingrained in the filmgoer's psyche?
Why not put the dough where the brains (read Big Ideas) belong? The small-budget filmmakers however, stand by the big brothers.
Says Kapoor, "The original Don is the ultimate B-grade film and worked only because of Mr Bachchan. But it's not about a remake when it has Shahrukh Khan and Farhan Akhtar together.
It will be Farhan's film and there's a whole new generation which will be introduced to it.�� Sen agrees: "The story lies in the telling.
Don't worry about the story itself. In Hollywood they have the franchise heroes like Indiana Jones and James Bond. There is no doubt about who the victor will be. The stories may differ but you know the general sequences and yet these films find their audiences each time.
They aren't sequels but people know what to expect. The tried and tested formula is safer."Kapoor chips in: "The brand Gone With The Wind or Don already exists. The novelty lies in how Brad Pitt or SRK will play the roles today."
It couldn't be as simple. Whatever happened to good ol' ethics of not filching someone else's brainwave? Scriptwriter Abbas Tyrewala (of Maqbool and Munnabhai MBBS fame) indignantly agrees: "You've no right to an idea if you didn't have the brains to come up with it in the first place!
However, if you give the credit, there's no harm is checking out what the interpretation can be. I'd love to see how Ramu will work out Sholay.
To my mind, the film demands the larger-than-life portrayals and scenes, but he works on the subtleties. He's re-interpreting the entire film in a modern context and that's fine."
Which leads us to how original is original? After all, our sub-conscious always stores images, people and anecdotes which spring up casually to surprise us.
Can we then say that we're 100 per cent original - ever? "Nothing in life is pure fiction. The names of people or places don't reflect real people with the same names or in the same places. Obviously, they have shades of several different characters who I've come across in my life.
How original your story is depends on how original the combination of facts and experiences that you put
together are,"shares Homi Adajania.
Say what you may, Lagaan was an original but no financier wanted to touch it. The catch lay in the fact that Aamir Khan after having said yes to the project had forbidden Ashutosh Gowariker to share the info with any producer he approached. Result.
No one thought it a great idea! Well, you can be sure a few have lived to regret that decision. So do it well, and the idea will sell - and Never Mind the remake!
manjula.negi@timesgroup.com

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