Bollywood Remakes in 2013: POLL

Indicine movie critic and trade analyst Joginder Tuteja on 7 of the most awaited upcoming Bollywood remakes in 2013.

Yet again, remakes are continuing to find themselves in circulation. Even though the year so far hasn’t seen a single remake hitting the screen, the season would kick-start with ‘Murder 3’ and by the middle of the year, there would be seven such films already hitting the marquee. Though one expects the count to become 10 before the end of 2013, here is presenting the ones that are already confirmed for arrival.

Murder 3 (15th February 2013)

Remake of Spanish film ‘La Cara Oculta’ with an Indian ‘tadka’ added to it, this Bhatt franchise is special since it marks the debut of scion Vishesh as a director. This is also the first time that Emraan Hashmi is not a part of the enterprise, something which will expect the opening footfalls. Still, with Randeep Hooda finding a good standing over last couple of years and the cocktail of love, lust and betrayal presented on screen, the film should turn out to be an intriguing affair.

Himmatwala (29th March 2013)

Sajid Khan talks commercial and he has shown his inclination once again by picking up Jeetendra starrer ‘Himmatwala’ which was released 30 years back. With Ajay Devgn enjoying a great phase as well, courtesy back to back success of ‘Son of Sardaar’ and ‘Bol Bachchan’, the actor-director ‘jodi’ is pretty strong. The fact that the film has been set in the 80s milieu only makes this remake all the more interesting.

Chashme Baddoor (5th April 2013)

The film has been delayed by almost a year which is sad since this David Dhawan comedy promises to be good fun at the face value at least. Remake of the namesake Sai Paranjpe film which was released 32 years back, ‘Chashme Baddoor’ holds relevance till date as the light hearted flavour of the entire set up stays in demand. One just hopes that this Ali Zafar-Siddharth-Divyendu starrer finally managed to release.

Shortcut Romeo (5th April 2013)

An official remake of Tamil flick ‘Thiruttu Payale’, ‘Shortcut Romeo’ was being looked as just another remake till it’s theatrical promo hit the screens. Ever since then the perception around this Neil Nitin Mukesh-Ameesha Patel starrer has taken a turn for better as the film is seemingly different from a routine South remake. By the look of things, this could well be the surprise package of the year.

Zanjeer (10th May 2013)

This film stays on to be a ‘band mutthi’ as absolutely nothing is known about how it is actually shaping up. Though snippets around Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra are being thrown around, there is good amount of secrecy around how Ram Charan is looking at filling in the big shoes of Big B. This one has the potential/fear of swinging either way but for Ram’s sake, one hopes it turns out to be on the positive side.

Boss (7th June 2013)

Yet another official remake, this time of a Malayalam film ‘Pokkiri Raja’, ‘Boss’ is an Akshay Kumar starrer that promises to be an out and out entertaining affair. Though Akshay has worked in remakes of quite a few Malayalam films (courtesy Priyadarshan), this time around he is pairing up with Anthony D’Souza. Buzz is that the filmmaker has gone totally ‘masala’ for this action-dramatic flick.

Policegiri (14th June 2013)

With quite a few actors turning a cop in many a South remakes, the original ‘thanedaar’ Sanjay Dutt is back as one with ‘Policegiri’, remake of Tamil hit ‘Saamy’. Though the film was supposed to begin around middle of last year, there was some delay which has now been taken care of. Packaged as an action packed affair, the film is also said to be suiting Dutt’s image to the T.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder