Which is the best Bollywood remake movie and was a super hit?

 Agneepath released in 2012 is an example of terrific remake of a cult classic Agneepath ( 1990 ). The movie was widely appreciated and became a box office gold.

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While Bollywood has many successful movies as remake of Hollywood/Korean and even South India movies. Here old Amitabh Bachchan’s Agneepath ( 1990 ) was a popular movie, however, it did not work commercially at the time of release. Later, it became a cult classic movie on the tv and web. New Agneepath as a remake matched old movie and even was brilliant in few department of music/background score abd mighty negative characters. Old Agneepath had towering presence of great Amitabh Bachchan, memorable sequences. The new movie had acting genius of Hrithik and never tried to replicate Amitabh’s role.

Please find the characters of Agneepath movie:

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Vijay Chouhan - an intense and emotional role portrayed by Hrithik. His only purpose in the movie was avenging death of his father, cruely killed by menacing Kancha Cheena. Despite being an action masala movie, Hrithik played a role of an underdog and was not a conventional mass hero. He manipulates, betrays, kills his enemies as the entire screenplay had dominating villains.

Sanjay Dutt as Kancha Cheena- Dutt played a daunting negative character and an Underworld gang leader. While Hrithik used expressions, Sanjay looked like a huge on screen muscular monster and utilised his massive body structure.

credit -google image

Rishi Kapoor as Rauf Lala- an interesting addition to the movie. Rishi Kapoor surprised everyone with his remarkable negative performance. He kept an aura of a strong criminal gang leader. His role became surprise package of the movie.

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Priyanka Chopra played Kali and was an emotional relief in an intense movie of crime lords. Few comic moments, songs, emotional parts were shot on her.

Massive moments of the movie: Spoliers ahead***

1. Vijay’s father getting deceit and killed by Kancha.
2. Vijay manipulate to kill Rauf lala’s son ( amazing background of Shah ka rutba song ).

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3.Vijay killing Surya with & recreating Mr Bachchan’s iconic “Naam Vijay Chouhan” dialouge ( wonderful Deva Sri Ganesha song in the background ).

4.When Hrithik’s sister meets Hrithik/Vijay with Kali and for the first time in the movie, Vijay/Hrithik shown emotionally happy ( song - “mujhme kabhi baaki hain jindagi”)

5.Katrina in the Chikni chameli song with Hrithik and Sanjay.

6.Pre Climax battle of Vijay saving his sister and killing Rauf lala. The best action sequence of the movie.

7.Final battle where a battered and nearly finished Hrithik overcomes physically more mightier Kancha Cheena and fulfills his revenge.

Every department of the movie was excellent. Hrithik's acting/painful expressions, Sanjay Dutt’s demonic presence, Rishi Kapoor’s Rauf Lala aura. Others actors like Om Puri, Sachin Khedekar and others also did justice to their roles. Incredible music by Ajay Atul elevated the movie upto next level.

I recall when I watched this movie 1st day 1st show in 2012, I was thinking why Vijay has been shown an underdog, why he is not acting like Amitabh of old Agneepath and in more mass avatar. Later realized, that is how movie was conceived. A must watch remake.

Jai Hind!

Why do you think Bollywood is making so many remakes of South Indian movies?

 There is just one simple reason why Bollywood is increasingly reliant on the remake of South Indian films, if you ask me: success leaves clues.

Over the last decade, South Indian industries (particularly Telugu, Tamil and Kannada cinema) have consistently delivered stories which hit the mark with audiences. It's only natural that Bollywood producers would look to these successful stories as safer bets than to develop completely original stories

But, there is so much more to the story than just this one reason:

The Biggest Reason: Proven Box Office Success

Producing movies is expensive business. When a South Indian film becomes a superhit, it is evident that the story, characters, and emotional beats worked wonders with audiences.

To the eyes of a Bollywood producer, obtaining the rights to remake the story feels like a less of a risk compared to gambling on an untested script.

A good number of recent movies like Kabir Singh, Drishyam, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Jersey were inspired by successful South Indian films; the original movies were already known among cinephiles, hence had the 'remake bait' appeal.

South Indian Cinema Has Been Delivering Strong Stories

There's also the other fact that Bollywood has been widely criticized for producing a dearth of fresh and engaging stories in the past few years.

While these very studios are criticized, their South Indian counterparts on the other hand, have gained a reputation for crafting powerful narratives that merge emotions, action, drama and entertainment which cater well to mass audiences.

Films such as KGF, Pushpa, Kantara, and RRR, clearly demonstrated that the audience across India had a thirst for 'large-than-life' storytelling embedded in their very cultural identities.

The Rise of Pan-India Audiences Changed Everything

A decade ago, most of the audience residing in North India was less exposed to the movies being made down south.

Now with the advent of OTT platforms and dubbed versions being easily available along with the spread on social media, people across the length and breadth of the country don't restrict themselves to watching films made within their own region; they are consuming content from every corner of the country.

And this brings us to a new kind of challenge for Bollywood.

If a movie made down South has already achieved Pan-India success, the only feasible way to tap into the existing audience along with entertaining a Hindi-speaking crowd would be to acquire its remake rights and tailor it for a Hindi-speaking audience.

Remakes Are Seen As a Safer Business Decision

Let's just be brutally honest-producing a movie is a high risk venture; an original movie may still fail despite having big stars, and a massive marketing budget. A remake, however, has the audience's verdict already delivered upon its story.

To producers and investors, this simply reduces risk. And in the age where cinematic release has stiff competition from over-the-top streaming services, most Bollywood studios prefer the 'safer' bet of trying their luck with stories which have already been validated by audiences.

But Are Audiences Getting Tired of Remakes?

And this is where it gets interesting. A lot of viewers are starting to express their 'remake fatigue'. As original South Indian films are now widely available on OTT platforms, the viewers are mostly catching the original version of the film even before the Hindi remake has been made.

This defeats the entire purpose of a remake-that the viewer's interest in the story will be renewed with a fresh adaptation; it doesn't anymore carry the same novelty factor it did few years back.

A lot of recent remakes have underperformed at the box office simply due to this, and the direct comparison being made by audiences.

What Bollywood Really Needs

While a few remake ventures are definitely successful, but long term survival of Bollywood should depend on original content. The Indian audiences has proved they are willing to embrace original scripts irrespective of which region it is coming from; be it Bollywood, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, or Kannada film industries. The actual competition today isn't between the film industries, but between good and forgettable stories.

Final Thoughts

Bollywood is making such a number of South Indian film remakes because these offer proven stories, less financial risk and have a pre-determined audience. However, in the current landscape where streaming platforms make original regional movies accessible, it is just not enough to make a replica of a hit film.

In the years to come, Bollywood's main challenge would be not finding enough number of successful South Indian movies to remake, but instead developing original content of a caliber to compete with the finest of stories originating from across India.

Which film remake do you think was better than the original?

 Agneepath (2012) was vast improvement over Agneepath (1990) in my opinion.

Agneepath is a cult classic no doubt but there are many problems with the film. Firstly, Amitabh looked too aged and his voice experiment was a total disaster. Hrithik Roshan played a middle aged man far convicningly without altering his voice.

Second, the character of Mithun Chakraborty was caricaturish and it adds nothing to the film in terms of narrative. Plus his South Indian accent was all over the place. New Agneepath did away with the character and added some new characters not in the original Agneepath like Rauf Lala played by Rishi Kapoor who became the highlight of the film.

Third was music. The music of old Agneepath was pretty ordinary with no standout songs. Kisko tha pata is hummable but other songs were passable at best. New Agneepath had brilliant soundtrack with songs like Abhi Mujhme Kahin, Saiyyan, Gun Guna re, Chikni Chameli etc.

The casting was appropriate in the new Agneepath with actors playing age appropriate roles. It was a bit of sore to see 42 year old Rohini Hattangadi playing the mother of 48 years old Bachchan. Also Neelam was cast to have a romantic subplot with Mithun. The new film made her character a school going girl and it helped well with the proceedings. Similarly Madhavi had previous little to do in Agneepath while Priyanka Chopra had a more defined role in the film.

One thing I like about the old Agneepath was that it was dark and gritty and had wonderful dialogues. But otherwise I consider the new Agneepath as the better film.

Few of the best Kannada remakes of Telugu films are as follows in Alphabetical Order.

 Aishwarya (2006) - Upendra, Deepika Padukone and Daisy Bopanna

This movie is a remake of the classic telugu movie Manmadhudu (2002) starring Nagarjuna, Sonali Bendre and Anshu. This happens to be the first movie of Deepika Padukone. Though this movie is a hit movie and is one of the top hit Kannada movies of 2006, it fails to hold the cult status that the original movie Manmadhudu holds.

Ajay (2006) - Puneeth Rajkumar and Anuradha Mehta

This hit movie is a remake of the telugu movie Okkadu (2003) starring Mahesh Babu and Bhumika Chawla. Like majority of his movies, this also happens to be one of the hit movies of Puneeth Rajkumar.

Brindavana (2013) - Darshan, Karthika Nair and Milana Nagaraj

This is a remake of the the Telugu film Brindavanam (2010) starring N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Kajal Aggarwal and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. This happens to be a hit movie. I’ve watched both the movies and can confidently tell that the Telugu version is way better. Jr. NTR’s rapo with the female leads and the supporting actors, Prakash Raj’s acting and the comic timing of Bramhanandam, Venu Madhav and other comedians is amazing. Sometimes I still wonder how this movie is a hit (maybe because of Darshan’s fan following). This is not the best remake according to me but I’ve added this in the list due to the fact that it was a hit.

Gaja (2008) - Darshan and Navya Nair

This movie is a remake of the telugu movie Bhadra (2005) starring Ravi Teja and Meera Jasmine.

Kathe Chitrakathe Nirdeshana Puttanna (2016) - Priyamani and Komal Kumar

This movie is a remake of the Telugu movie Geethanjali (2014) starring Anjali and Srinivasa Reddy. This happens to be one of the few hit films that does not have any big stars and is a hit truly based on the story and comedy.

Khushi Khushiyagi (2015) - Ganesh and Amulya

This movie is the remake of the Telugu movie Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde (2013) starring Nitin and Nitya Menen

Maanikya (2014) - Sudeep, V. Ravichandran, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar and Ranya Rao

This movie is the remake of the Telugu movie Mirchi (2013) starring Prabhas, Anushka Shetty and Richa Gangopadhyay.

Maurya (2004) - Puneeth Rajkumar and Meera Jasmine

This movie is a remake of the Telugu movie Amma Nanna O Tamil Ammayi (2003) starring Ravi Teja and Asin. Both the movies were one of the biggest hits in the respective year of release.

Porki (2010) - Darshan and Pranitha Subhash

This movie is a remake of the Telugu movie Poriki (2006) starring Mahesh Babu and Illeana D’Cruz. The Telugu version holds the cult status but I am not sure about the Kannada version.

Power (2014) - Puneeth Rajkumar and Trisha

This movie is the remake of the Telugu movie Dookudu (2012) starring Mahesh Babu and Samantha Ruth Prabhu.

Ranna (2015) - Sudeep, Rachita Ram and Haripriya

This movie is a remake of a Telugu classic movie Attarintiki Daredi (2013) starring Pawan Kalyan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Pranitha Subhash.

Veera Madakari (2009) - Sudeep and Ragini Dwivedi

This is movie is a remake of the Telugu movie Vikramarkudu (2006) starring Ravi Teja and Anushka Shetty

It is extremely sad that though these remakes were a hit, majority of the movies could not create the impact that the version that the Telugu version has created.

Your opinion might differ from mine. Let’s agree to disagree.