Oh! Baby, Oopriri, Kadaram Kondan show South Indian producers are vying for remake rights of international blockbusters

While there are filmmakers who shamelessly lift scenes and core stories from foreign language films, the recent promising trend is that producers and directors from the south film industry are willing to legally buy the remake rights and they don’t have any reluctance to credit the original creators. Samantha Akkineni’s recent blockbuster Oh Baby is the official remake of Korean feel-good drama Miss Granny. While many directors and producers walk the extra mile to approach the original producers to buy the remake rights, the makers of Miss Granny actually approached both Samantha and Nandini Reddy to adapt their film in Telugu. [caption id=“attachment_6851561” align=“alignnone” width=“1000”]  Samnatha Akkineni in a still from Oh! Baby[/caption] “Yes, what you heard is true. We were approached by Kross Pictures who own the rights of Miss Granny. In fact, we have credited them as one of the production partners of Oh Baby”, said Samantha to Firstpost. For those who do not know, Kross Pictures is also one of the producers of Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Te3n, the official Hindi remake of South Korean film Montage. As Oh Baby has become a blockbuster, Kross Pictures is now planning to remake the film in Hindi. The production house also has plans to remake Miracle in Cell No. 7 with director Umesh Shukla. Kross Pictures also moved the court against the producers of Kannada film Pushpaka Vimana (2017) for adapting Miracle in Cell No.7 without any financial agreement. With production houses like Kross Pictures filing infringement cases against producers who lift the stories without any financial tie-up, things will surely become tedious for lazy writers and directors who rely on foreign language films. Kamal Haasan’s Raaj Kamal Films bought French remake rights of Sleepless Night and Point Blank, they have also successfully remade both the films in Tamil as Thoongaa Vanam and Kadaram Kondan respectively. Earlier, netizens used to criticise Haasan for his films like Avvai Shanmughi, Chachi 420, and Anbe Sivam for its strange resemblance with foreign language films but now, he is willing to buy the remake rights and adapt it in Tamil. Vijay Antony’s comeback film Kolaigaran is based on the Japanese novel The Devotion of Suspect X. It is worth mentioning that Mohanlal’s blockbuster film ‘Drishyam’ directed by Jeethu Joseph was also based on the same novel but neither the producer nor the director bought the remake rights. However, considering the legal pressure from foreign production houses, the producers of Kolaigaran bought the rights of the novel and they also mentioned it in the title credits. Even before the above said films, director Nalan Kumarasamy of _Soodhu Kavvum-_fame and CV Kumar bought the Tamil remake rights of Korean film My Dear Desperado and successfully adapted in Tamil as Kadhalum Kadanthu Pogum, with Vijay Sethupathi and Madonna Sebastian. Interestingly, Korean films relatively work well at the South box office whereas the three French remakes — Thoongaa Vaanam, Thozha and Kadaram Kondan (decent opening) have not unanimously received positive reviews. However, Oopiri, the Telugu version of Thozha was a blockbuster at the box office. Reports also say that as the producers of Badla, which itself the remake of Spanish film The Invisible Guest, are quoting huge price for the Tamil remake rights, as steps are being taken to get permission from the original producers. Industry insiders say that Korean and Spanish production houses are quoting reliable price for remake rights but the same cannot be said for Hollywood production houses, who are charging a bomb. [caption id=“attachment_6227011” align=“alignnone” width=“1000”]  Taapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bacchan in a promotional still of Badla[/caption] In one of his interviews, Anil Kapoor mentioned that Christopher Nolan was upset as both AR Murugadoss and Aamir Khan did not give him any credit in Ghajini, which is based on Memento. So until directors and producers in Hollywood do not legally fight against regional film producers, the unofficial remakes or the blatant copies will continue. However, the promising trend is that young generation filmmakers are keen on legally procuring remake rights if the rates are feasible. All images from Twitter.