Drishyam 2 Director Abhishek Pathak Argues The Concept Of Remaking Films Is Not Fundamentally Wrong, But States “The Problem Is We Actually Are So Scared To…”
Drishyam 2 Director Abhishek Pathak acknowledges that there is a rising debate about whether remakes post-pandemic make sense. Read on.
Drishyam 2 Director Abhishek Pathak Addresses The Rising Debate Over Remakes Post Pandemic, “…People End Up Making Frame To Frame Remakes” ( Photo Credit – Instagram )
Advertisement
Superstar Ajay Devgn is all set to return as Vijay Salgoankar in Drishyam 2, which is the remake of the 2021 Malayalam film of the same name. The film is also the sequel to the 2015 film Drishyam. The film is releasing at a time when several big-ticket Hindi remakes tanked this year.
Films like Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, Hrithik Roshan-Saif Ali Khan starrer Vikram Vedha and Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey, which were remakes, failed to make a mark at the box office. Now filmmaker Abhishek Pathak claims that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the concept of remaking films for a wider audience.
During a conversation with the Indian Express, Drishyam 2 director Abhishek Pathak acknowledges that there is a rising debate about whether remakes post-pandemic make sense because any original work is just a click away thanks to streamers. However, he feels there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the concept of remakes but it becomes an issues when filmmakers opt for “frame to frame” copy of the original work.
The filmmaker said, “This debate started recently; I have been reading about it. Even Hollywood does a lot of remakes, Oceans 11, and The Departed are remakes too but no one compares because they made it so beautifully, that they forget the older version. That’s the idea when you are remaking, take the soul of the story and then adapt it.”
Drishyam 2 director then said that it becomes a problem when filmmakers choose to not experiment with the material they have. They rely instead on the safer route of remaking the film frame by frame.
“You are buying it, paying the money for the story, if you want to make that (same) film, just take the rights, dub it and release it. Don’t do frame to frame, because then what are you adding to it as a director? Don’t think like a remake, just take it as a screenplay, forget a film and just make yours. I have seen a lot of times people end up making frame-to-frame remakes,” Abhishek Pathak added.
