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Millennium star Amitabh Bachchan is a prolific actor who has worked in over 200 movies throughout his career. The 81-year-old actor still remains an inspiration to many for his energy, dedication and passion. Many aspiring as well as existing actors idolise him. Big B has several blockbusters to his name and the journey started with Zanjeer. Sholay, Deewar, Don, Trishul, Black, Paa and several others are some of his notable works. Undoubtedly, the iconic writer-duo Salim-Javed wrote countless stories, which made Big B a huge star. Thanks to the original engaging storytelling.
Remake trend in Bollywood
As per the current trend, filmmakers are showing eagerness to cash in on the success of movies from other languages by remaking them and are reluctant to create some original movies. Such a trend has earned Bollywood nicknames like 'Remakewood' or 'Copywood'. While earlier, remakes found success for a long time, now, the strategy of remakes is failing miserably.
Remakes of Amitabh Bachchan's movies
Of course, remakes have long been a mainstay in Indian cinema. While Bollywood filmmakers are mostly relying on remaking successful South movies, earlier, several iconic Bollywood movies have been remade in the South film industry. Thalaivar Rajinikanth became a superstar by working as the lead in remakes of Big B. The movie list includes Deewar, Don, Mard, Namak Halaal, Kasme Vaade, Trishul, Naaseb, Laawaris, Mili, Majboor, Sharaabi, etc. Not just South industry, but even Bollywood remade some of his iconic movies, including Don, Agneepath and Zanjeer.
Big B on remake practice
While critics have been condemning Bollywood's overreliance on remake strategy, recently, an old video of Amitabh Bachchan resurfaced on social media in which the Kalki 2898 AD actor talks candidly about the remake practice.
During the interview in 2011 with Rediff, Big B mentioned that it is fine to remake movies. He also said that those who own the rights to work should have the liberty to do what they want.
Talking about working in a remake or producing one, Big B said, "I haven’t thought about working in any remake or producing a remake. I don’t think Abhishek has thought about it because we both feel that an original should be left an original."
Further, he went on to add that when journalists question him on this he says that there was a generation that loved KL Saigal doing Devdas and then Dilip Kumar (Sahab) did Devdas.
"In my eyes that (Dilip Kumar's) was the ultimate Devdas. But today’s generation feels that Shah Rukh Khan is the correct Devdas," the Paa actor said.
He noted that with each generation, as the remaking of a movie continues multiple times, the new generation will identify the movie with the current actor.
Moviegoers are well aware that Big B's Don was remade in multiple languages including a reboot version in Hindi. The Chandra Barot directorial was rebooted by Javed Akhtar's son Farhan Akhtar in 2006, with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead. While many were sceptical initially, SRK's Don also became iconic.
Talking about the reboot, Big B said, "Tomorrow, you never know, they will say that the original Don was Shah Rukh Khan! But the original Don was made with Chandra Barot and me. These things will change with each generation, but an original will always be original."
Mughal-e-Azam remake with Bachchan family!
Indeed, an original will always remain original! For the unversed, a big producer from the South decided to do a Mughal-e-Azam remake with Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as Emporer Akbar, Jodha Bai, Salim and Anarkali, respectively. However, the dream of the producer of bringing the entire Bachchan family together for the biggest Indian films of all time remained a dream.
Though not directly, Amitabh Bachchan said that the iconic period drama Mughal-e-Azam, originally starring Prithviraj Kapoor (Akbar), Dilip Kumar (Salim), Madhubala (Anarkali) and Durga Khote (Jodha Bai), can't be remade as people will compare it with original.
