Why do some Bollywood remakes of South Indian films flop despite having a strong original story, like in the case of 'Yuva'?

 First of all Yuva is not a remake. The film was made simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi with different cast. And yee many Bollywood remakes fail despite strong story lines because of the following reasons-

Wrong casting- some very good films lose because of wrong casting. Many people from film families use south remakes as safe bets to launch their incompetent children into the industry leading to an utter loss of quality. We had a National award winning film Helen remade into Mili which proved to be a massive disaster. Similarly another very good South film Kolamaavu Kokila was remade as Good Luck Jerry again with Jahnvi Kapoor which got directly streamed on OTT. Similarly, we got remake of Ghilli as Tevar with Arjun Kapoor, Thadam was remade as Gumrah with Aditya Roy Kapoor. Recently Premalu was remade as Prem Keetanu where an uber rich Veer Pahariya tried to pass off as a young man while looking like this. Love Today was remade as Loveyapa, all these movies had potential but wrong casting failed it. Another thing is that perhaps the actor lack the aura to carry off such a film like we see in the context of Pavan Kalyan's Badri which was a major hit but the film was remade in Hindi with Tushar Kappor, Amrita Arora and Gracey Singh in the lead.

Wrong Budget- some regional films are generally made on a limited budget and they have the sensibility of a small film. But when they become major hits they are remade on a massive budget which ruins the spirit of the film. Driving License was a Malayalam film made on a small budget and immensely successful. They roped in Akshay Kumar and Emran Hashmi in the remake and did so many songs ballooning the budget to over 150 crores which is too much for a simple drama film. The film became a massive flop earning less than 20 crores. Same thing happened with Sorarai Potturu which was remade as Sarfira with a budget of around 100 crores and the film flopped badly.

Outdated film- Films need to be remade before they become outdated. Some makers try to remake films that are bit outdated for today's time. The 2005 film Chhatrapati was remade in 2023 with Belamkonda Shrinivas Rao and Nusrat Bharucha, that too on a budget of 50 crores. The film ended up earning less than 5 crores. Similarly Sajid Khan ended up remaking 1983 film Himmatwala in 2013 which in itself was a remake of Telugu film but the difference between the original Telugu and 1983 Himmat wala was less than one year but the film was not worthy of a remake in 2013 and that too on a 80 crores budget. Result was a colossal failure. But the worst choice was Govinda trying to make a comeback by remaking a 1982 Rajnikanth film Netrakan as Rangeela Raja which turned out to be so offensive and tone deaf that it was washout at arrival.

OTT and over saturation- in today's time South films are vastly seen and easily available on OTT and Youtube. So why would anyone want to watch the remake? So Jersey starring Shahid Kapoor failed badly despite coming after Kabir Singh and despite being a decent remake, simply because the original was easily available online. Soorarai Potturu was released in Hindi as Udaan so there was no need of a hindi remake separately which is why Sarfira failed. Recently Haiwaan also failed very badly. Even the remake of a Blockbuster film Ala Vaikunthapuramaloo called Shahzada failed badly because the original was available and the remake didn't add anything new to the existing film.

Which South Indian movies do you recommend over Bollywood?

 

Movie named 96: Actually it is not merely a movie, it is an emotion. The purest form of love and friendship shown in this movie is incredible. A story of one night seems like a journey and you feel like a part of it. At the end of the movie your heart and brain are in fight against each other about how the movie should end, you want your heart to win but you also don't want to see your brain defeated. Overall, i think everyone should watch it at least once. Now a days when you hardly get to watch a movie worth watching with your family, this is a masterpiece.

Next is Ratsasan : It started watching it without any expectation as i am more of a reader than a movie freak but this movie literally blew my mind away. Like each novel by Agatha Christie forces me to complete it in one go, this movie kept me glued to my chair till the end. No one can predict what is gonna happen next. Nothing seemed out of the context or imaginary, everything was well executed. And the twist at the end is icing on the top. No other thriller movie has ever affected me the way it did.

Image source: google

What attracts you towards South Indian movies rather than Bollywood?

 I’ll give you this answer in an illustrated way!

You must have been familiar with both of these movies -

This is Hrithik Roshan’s character Arjun in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. He is staunch, disciplined gentleman with a keen business eye and money always on his priority. In a scene when he and Katrina Kaif’s character Laila go for a walk after Tomatina Festival, he tells Laila that his father left nothing but debt for him, so he had to always think about money.

Now,

He is Allu Arjun’s Character Viraj Anand in Son of Sathyamurthy. He on the other hand sells off all of his father’s properties and assets to pay off the loans taken by his Father. He did this so that his Father’s name shouldn’t be dishonored. Also, all the hardships that he faced afterwards was for his Father only. We learnt that Values and Culture are more important than any materialistic thing in this World.

Both are Gem of a Films but the difference lies in regarding ZNMD we say “Arey ye toh dekhi hui hai” (I have seen this) and regarding Son of Sathyamurty it is always a feeling “Arey ye to fir dekhni padegi” ( I’ll watch it one more time”

Another example of Political Movies, as I always have keen interest in them, in Bollywood and Tollywood-

I’ll not even talk about trash like Youngistaan, The Accidental Prime Minister and PM Narendra Modi(Film), especially the latter that utterly destroyed a good personality of PM Modi portrayed by Vivek Oberoi. I’ll talk about-

A brilliant ensemble which could have been made much more brilliantly ended up blatantly hitting Politics and how dirty and materialistic it is. Although, some of the scenes were good otherwise, it’s not even close to actual Raajneeti!

Now,

This is Mahesh Babu starrer Bharat Ane Nenu aka Dashing CM Bharat in dubbed version. This movie actually portrays what is Politics, the level of dirt and also how you can use it to help build the Nation.

The stark difference between both the above movies was a perspective of outlook. As I said earlier, Raajneeti too is well made, well acted but it is so violent, dark and gloomy as if every Indian Election is a Dead Man’s Chest! And on the other hand is Bharat Ane Nenu, depicting real problems and how actually you can come into Politics to clean it from within.

These are very few examples but I think I've made point of preferred choice over South Indian Movies.

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.