Boney Kapoor on remaking Pink in Tamil and Telugu: 'A good film should reach as many people as possible'

Veteran Hindi producer Boney Kapoor grabbed everyone’s attention in the South with Ajith’s Nerkonda Paarvai , the Tamil remake of Pink, and all set to begin shooting for the Telugu remake of the Big B and Taapsee Pannu-starrer with Pawan Kalyan . He is also holding the South remake rights of Ayushman Khurrana’s Badhaai Ho and Article 15 . Boney is also working on the Hindi remake of blockbuster Tamil comedy entertainer Comali with his son Arjun Kapoor . [caption id=“attachment_7597171” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Boney Kapoor. Image from IANS[/caption] Talking exclusively to Firstpost on his new strategy of remaking content-driven Hindi films in Tamil and vice versa, the producer said: “A good film should reach as many people as possible. My first film as a producer was Hum Paanch in Hindi, which itself was a remake of Kannada film Paduvaaralli Pandavaru. After that, I have produced remakes of many films from Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. Also, I would say that Nerkonda Paarvai’s success has given me the confidence that a good film never fails to get appreciated irrespective of the language. The idea is to make content that is good, stories worth telling whether those are original content like Maidaan or _Valimai_ in Tamil with Ajith and H Vinoth or stories that are being remade like in case of Pink, Comali, Badhaai Ho or Article 15.” When asked whether filmmakers in Tamil and Hindi have started making universally appealing films, Boney said: “Emotions are always universal. As I said, any good content will travel across languages as long as people relate to the emotions being shown on screen. Of course, the screenplay should be adapted to the region and language where you are making the film.” These days the view count of Hindi dubbed versions of the South films is huge on YouTube. There is a good demand in the satellite market for the South dubbed biggies in North. When asked whether these dubbed versions would affect the business of the Hindi remakes of South films, Boney said: “Not really, because we adapt the stories according to the sensibilities of the audience in that demographic. Moreover, we also rope in actors and directors who would add their own value to the remakes.” Talking about the Hindi remake of Comali featuring Arjun in the lead, the producer said: “I have just acquired the rights. Currently, we are in the process of finalising the director, writer and then we can work out the logistics of the film.” Boney also says that he is planning to remake Badhaai Ho in Telugu first and not in Tamil. He is also working on the South remake of Article 15. “We are still locking things on these two Hindi films (Badhaai Ho and _Article 1_5). If all goes well, we should be able to go on floors with Badhaai Ho remake in Telugu soon,” said the producer. Apart from these remakes, Boney is also bankrolling leading Tamil actor Ajith’s 60th film Valimai with director H Vinoth of Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru and Nerkonda Paarvai fame. Unlike Nerkonda Paarvai, Vinoth’s new film with Ajith is his original script. On the progress of Ajith’s film with Vinoth, Boney said: “I think Valimai is shaping up well. Vinoth and his team are working on it in a full swing. We shall soon be able to share more details. I can assure that our team will be living up to the expectations of Ajith’s fans”. To be directed by Vinoth, Yuvan Shankar Raja will be composing the music for the film and Nirav Shah of 2.0 fame has been roped in to crank the camera. Boney had earlier announced that Valimai will be hitting the screens for 2020 Summer holidays. For the Telugu remake of Pink, Boney has joined hands with leading Tollywood producer ‘Dil’ Raju and Venu Sriram of MCA fame will be helming the film. The Pink remake marks the comeback of Pawan, whose last film Agnyaathavasi released in January 2018.