South film remakes seem to be the flavor of the season. The Hindi filmmakers are aggressively buying the remake rights of critically acclaimed and commercially hit regional films and the number of the remake rights acquisition is only getting bigger day by day. Ajay Devgn recently announced that he is collaborating with Dil Raju to produce the remake of the Telugu crime courtroom drama Naandhi. Boney Kapoor also revealed just yesterday that he's acquired the Malayalam hit political drama One to remake its Bollywood version.
Now, Peepingmoon.com has learned about two more South Indian films that have recently been acquired by Bollywoodwalas to remake in Hindi. Industry sources have informed us that Neeraj Pandey has bought the remake rights of the 2016 Malayalam crime-drama, Puthiya Niyamam that starred Mammootty, Nayanthara, and Roshan Mathew in the lead. "Neeraj Pandey has been contemplating remaking this film for a while now as it's a perfect combination of a family drama and thriller, and also has a revenge angle in it where the heroine takes revenge on the preparators. Pandey has bought the rights and is planning to make it with a top Bollywood actress sometime next year," the source told us.
Pandey's creative team is said to have already started rewriting the original to suit the Hindi audiences' sensibilities. He will start pitching actresses once the script is ready. An intense tale that revolves around a Kathakali dancer whose life takes a turn for the worst after she gets raped, the film won Nayanthara the Filmfare Award for Best Actor (Female) — Malayalam for her outstanding performance.
Puthiya Niyamam is the third South Indian film that Neeraj Pandey has acquired to remake in Hindi under his banner Friday Filmworks. The filmmaker is already working on the Hindi versions of the 2019 Malayalam film, Ishq, and the 2017 Tamil blockbuster Vikram Vedha. While Ishq — a female-centric romantic thriller highlighting the issue of moral policing — stars Sidhant Gupta, Vedika Pinto, Bhumika Chawla and Sharad Kelkar in the Hindi version, Vikram Vedha remake will star Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan in the roles of a gangster and a righteous police officer respectively.
The second regional film that's been acquired for the Hindi remake is the 2010 Tamil neo-noir action-thriller, Aaranya Kaandam. Producer Ramesh Taurani of Tips Industries has bought the rights of this Ravi Krishna, Jackie Shroff and Sampath Raj starrer that unfolds over a duration of 24 hours. Taurani is believed to be planning to get the film on floors next year and will soon set up a creative team to work on it. The producer has also acquired the adaptation rights of Sheela Reddy's book, Mr. And Mrs. Jinnah: The Marriage That Shook India which is expected to be made into a web series mid-next year.
Aaranya Kaandam is said to be the first Tamil neo-noir and is considered India's answer to Quentin Tarantino. The Thiagarajan Kumararaja directorial was highly appreciated for its storytelling that stands out with its realistic portrayal and no-nonsense treatment. Based on criminal gangs who operate out of the concrete jungle of North Chennai, the film is a thriller drama that unfolds between two rival mafia gangs when a bag of cocaine gets stolen by two innocent people.
