No remakes please

Tulika

Filmmakers in Karnataka appear to have run out of ideas -- or the guts to back them.

The answer? Remakes -- which have been flooding the Kannada marquee for quite a while now. What makes the situation even more piquant is that while original movies have been falling by the wayside, the remakes have been cashing in.

A concerned industry has, thus, promulgated a moratorium -- no more remakes, after March 31, 2002. From that date on, any film-maker attempting to remake a film will be subjected to punitive taxation and other measures.

The result -- a frenzy on the shooting floors, as producers race to complete their remakes ahead of the deadline.

And while on the subject, here is a bit of a first: Ninagaagi in Kannada is a remake of Nuvve Kavali in Telugu which is a remake of Piryadha Varam Vendum in Tamil which is a remake of Niram in Malayalam!

In other words, the Kannada film makes it a clean sweep, of one film being remade in the other three South Indian languages. For the record, Kamal directed the original in Malayalam and the Tamil remake. Ramoji Rao, who remade it in Teleugu with Tarun and Richa Palot (the film was a bumper hit) has now produced the Telugu version as well, with S Mahender directing.

Passing mention, now, of two other remakes. On the floors is a remake of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Baazigar, produced by Rockline Venkatesh who had earlier remade Shah Rukh's Darr. The Baazigar reprise has, by way of talking point, Jyotika in the lead role. Make that both lead roles -- in her first ever double role, Jyotika will play the roles essayed by Shilpa Shetty and Kajol in the Hindi original.

And then there is Love Lavike -- a remake of the Tamil original Paarthen Rasithen. The Kannada remake sets itself in a KSRTC bus in Bangalore, and stars Naveen Mayur, Chaitra and Sara.