Makers of Drishyam 2 hindi remake revealed the first look poster of Ajay Devgn starrer today. While the first look poster is generating positive reception on social media, one could only wonder how necessary and profit looking in a remake in today’s times. This Abhishek Pathak directorial much like its 2015 predecessor (a remake of Jeethu Joseph directorial Drishyam starring Mohanlal) is also a remake of 2021 sequel directed by Jeethu Joseph.
What is even more tricky a space is that, things have changed post covid-19 when it comes to Indian movies. People are becoming more intolerant towards remakes. One could see what happened to the tamil and Malayalam remakes of Andhadhun. In this case, things get worse because the malayalam original is just one year old. It was a direct Amazon Prime Video original release. The film released at a point when theatres were closed and OTT platform audience base was skyrocketing exponentially. Amazon Prime also went on a marketing overdrive for Drishyam 2 (2021). Most of the North Indian audience have watched the Malayalam original.
The Hindi remake of the first part starring Ajay Devgn was a hit at the box office. The film’s target audience then was mostly the multiplex audience who now have direct access to every streaming content. Ideally speaking, remaking a recent OTT blockbuster is a clearly bad move. The film was remade both in Kannada as Drishya 2 and in Telugu as Drushyam 2. While the kannada version saw a moderate success, the telugu version remained under-watched on OTT.
Now we don’t know if the hindi remake will surprisingly do well because of its theatrical release (unlike the Malayalam original and telugu). But what we know is, today the air is not in favour of remakes. The dull buzz around Vikram Vedha is a clear example. Remakes are not getting the same reception as before. People are being more exposed to movies all around the world and discovering even slightest of inspired scenes to shame the entirety of Bollywood Industry. Instead of investing on real and new creative minds, resorting to easy cash-grab tactics would most likely back-fire and create a bigger dent on the Industry considering the social media negativity. We can only hope for bollywood to learn from its mistakes before its too late.