It is a season of retakes in the Malayalam film industry. As much-touted star-studded movies continue to falter at the box office, the filmmakers are turning to two new recipes - sequels and remakes.

While, in the former, the popular characters are reworked and placed in unfamiliar settings, the USP of the latter is the popularity of the original. Shaji Kailas’ much-awaited Mammootty-Suresh Gopi-starrer ‘The King and the Commissioner’ and TK Rajeev Kumar’s take on the Bharathan-Padmarajan classic ‘Rathinirvedam’ could signal a new thrust to the trend of sequels and remakes in Malayalam.

While the filmmakers swear by the guarantee of repeat value these projects come with, it is also hard to miss a serious shortage of fresh ideas that lead these filmmakers to vintage hits for inspiration.

“The producers who are investing money in these ventures will look for sure shots and if it is a proven subject, then the risk factor is minimal. And the dearth of novel ideas is another factor that prompts the producer to look for remakes and sequels,” says Kerala Film Producers Association secretary G Suresh Kumar who initiated this new trend in Malayalam with the remake of ‘Neelathamara’ last year.

He says that the dearth of novel ideas is also a reason for going behind remakes. “Nowadays, the industry is revolving around stars, be it superstars or second line heroes. They will fix the director and scriptwriter for the project and even interfere in scripting and direction aspects. They are least bothered about the producers. And every producer will not be able to make such movies at a high production cost of Rs 6 to 7 crore, which is a heavy risk,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Rajesh Pillai, the director of the path-breaking movie ‘Traffic’ said that there was no dearth of ideas in Malayalam cinema. “Some filmmakers do not have the patience to find fresh ideas and convert it into a film. I consider doing sequels or remakes as a shortcut. In my case, I prefer experimenting with a new subject than doing prequels or sequels,” adds Pillai.

A couple of other similar projects are in the pipeline this year. ‘Valayar Paramasivam,’ a sequel to Dileep’s superhit movie ‘Runway’ and a remake of Mohanlal’s all-time hit ‘Naduvazhikal’ with Prithviraj in the lead are some among them. There are also reports that director Johnny Antony is planning a sequel to his superhit movie ‘CID Moosa.’

“Who said doing sequels is easy? I do not think so. The biggest challenge in front of the director when doing the sequel is to repeat the box-office success of the first part,” says Johny Antony.

But, when we closely observe the trend, more often than not, the idea of cashing in on sequels have backfired. The sequels to the superhit movie ‘Nadodikkattu’ did not fare too well at the box-office as did the original. Likewise, was the case of ‘Balram Vs Tharadas’ in which two evergreen characters by Mammootty were united. Another recent release which failed to enthuse the viewers is ‘August 15,’ a retake of the 1988-superhit ‘August 1’. Still, directors are keen to try the sequel formula. And the huge initial collection that the new version of ‘Rathinirvedham’ is bagging, may prompt many to come up with more remake versions.


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