Big B to play 'Godfather' in Hindi adaptation

Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan will play The Godfather in the Hindi remake of Francis Coppola's classic Hollywood film that immortalized Marlon Brando.

The film, to be directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, will have Akshay Kumar playing the role of Michael Corleone, the younger son and heir-apparent of The Godfather, said its producer Feroz Nadiadwala whose last film was the hit comedy Hera Pheri.

The rest of the cast has yet to be finalized for the film that will be entitled Kutumbh, said Nadiadwala, who is in the process of wrapping up his Akshay Kumar-Sunil-Shetty-Aftab Shivdasani romantic comedy Awaara Paagal Deewana, directed by Vikram Bhatt.

"I had decided I'd make it only with Mr Bachchan whenever he agreed," says Manjrekar of the film he calls his dream project.

Several Indian directors in the past have done their own spin on Coppola's 1972 gangster classic. Mani Rathnam's Tamil masterpiece Nayakan in which Kamal Haasan gave a knock-out performance in Marlon Brando's role, turned out to be a blockbuster.

But Feroz Khan's Hindi version of Nayakan titled Dayavan with Vinod Khanna in the lead role did not do as well as his Dharmatma in 1975, the first Hindi adaptation of the Hollywood classic. Khan cast the late Premnath in Marlon Brando's role and himself as the heir apparent.

The Bachchan-Akshay Kumar pairing doesn't come as a surprise considering Nadiadwala's fondness for Akshay who has worked with him earlier in Hera Pheri and the soon-to-be released Awaara Paagal Deewaana.

Bachchan has already been seen as Akshay's father in Suneel Darshan's Ek Rishtaa: The Bond Of Love. The duo are also working in director Vipul Shah's All The Best, a caper that also stars Aftab Shivdasani and Arjun Rampal, the hot lead of Pyaar Ishq Mohabbat.

"I'm thrice blessed. Other actors of my generation have to wait for their entire career to do a film with Mr Bachchan. I'm doing three films with him in one year," says Akshay.

Interestingly, Kutumbh won't be the first time Big B plays the godfather. The 1990 film Agneepath, which was an adaptation of the gangster classic by his favorite director Mukul Anand, won him Bachchan his first and only National Award for Best Actor.

Will Bachchan be better in Kutumbh than Agneepath?

Producer Feroz Nadiadwala doesn't promise a better Bachchan. But he does promise to give a different dimension to the gangster's part to be played by India's reigning superstar.