From Bade Miyan Chote Miyan to Ittefaq: When old titles were used for new films

By Rajiv Vijayakar -

April 10, 2024 - 4:17 PM IST

The release of the new Bade Miyan Chote Miyan takes us back to 1998 when another film with the same title hit the screen. That film also had two heroes, but the interesting part is that both movies have been co-produced by Vashu Bhagnani. Buzz about a hit song from the earlier Viju Shah score being re-created will have to be checked if true when the film comes.

From Bade Miyan Chote Miyan to Ittefaq: When old titles were used for new films

Rights to a film title registered with the IMPPA (Indian Motion Pictures’ Producers’ Association) can be renewed after 10 years, or can be taken by another producer who wants it for a new film. However, in rare cases like this and a few more, the same filmmaker uses the title again, whether he is making a new story or rebooting the earlier film.

Aamir Khan’s father, Tahir Husain, thus made two films named Madhosh. The 1974 film starred Rakesh Roshan, Reena Roy and Mahendra Sandhu and featured Aamir as a child artiste. The latter film introduced his younger son, Faisal Khan in the lead.

Vashu too had come up with Coolie No. 1, released on OTT in 2020. This was, however, a reboot of his own 1995 comedy with Govinda and Karisma Kapoor. The new film starring Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan was also directed by David Dhawan but was a disaster, unlike the earlier super-hit. But it re-created two chartbusters from the older film, ‘Main to raste se jaa rahaa tha’ and ‘Husn hai suhana’.

Filmmaker Brij’s biggest hit, Victoria No. 203 (1972), was ‘modernized’ as a new film with the same title in 2007, produced by his son Kamal Sadanah, who also played the villain in the film! It featured two chartbusters, ‘Do bechare’ and ‘Thoda sa thehero’ from Kalyanji-Anandji’s super-hit score, and they were re-created by the new film’s composer, Viju Shah, Kalyanji’s son. Amit Kumar, son of the earlier song’s singer, Kishore Kumar, sang ‘Do bechare’.

Brij had also directed the Ashok Kumar-Raaj Kumar-Feroz Khan success, Oonche Log in 1965, whose music, especially the iconic Rafi number, ‘Jaag dil-e-deewana’, is loved to this day. In 1988, he was lucky enough to get the same title for another film featuring Rajesh Khanna and Salma Agha, which was co-produced by his wife, Sayeeda Khan Sadanah.

BR Films’ Ittefaq was a standout super-hit in 1969 with Rajesh Khanna and Nanda. The same core story was rehashed with some changes by B.R. Chopra’s daughter-in-law, Renu Ravi Chopra, under the same title in 2017.

Another such title was Zanjeer, a pathetic 2013 rehash of the 1973 masterpiece and trendsetter that marked the true breakthrough of Amitabh Bachchan. It was produced by the original filmmaker Prakash Mehra’s sons Puneet and Sumeet. Meet Bros Anjjan even cleverly recreated a song, ‘Kaatilana’, around the older Asha Bhosle sizzler, ‘Diljalon ka dil jalaa ke’.

Yash Johar turned producer with the 1980 romantic action drama and blockbuster, Dostana. 28 years later, his wife Hiroo and son Karan Johar gave this name to another film on friendship that was a sex comedy. It featured earlier hero Amitabh Bachchan’s son Abhishek Bachchan.

Pramod Chakravorty’s 1976 film, Barood, remained a jinx for the filmmaker, however, whether it was the title of the thriller featuring Rishi Kapoor, Shoma Anand and Reena Roy in a cameo, or the new 1998 film starring Akshay Kumar, Raveena Tandon with Ayesha Jhulka in a song cameo this time.

Mahesh Bhatt directed the Sunny Deol-Dimple Kapadia film, Gunaah, in 1993. He also was the writer of the 2002 film of that name, which starred Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea and Irrfan Khan. The gap between these films was a mere nine years, though, suggesting that Bhatt had a role in acquiring the new title early for his brother, Mukesh Bhatt’s production house.

Rajkumar Kohli produced and directed the multi-starrer horror blockbuster, Jaani Dushmun, in 1979 and repeated this title for another horror drama in 2002. The last film had a cosmetic difference in one different English letter and a suffix and was named Jaani Dushman —Ek Anokhi Kahani! Interestingly, it had the theme of icchadhaari snakes that marked Kohli’s earlier multi-starrer film, Nagin (1976).

In the pure coincidences range, we had Dharmendra in the lead in two Baazi’s (1968 and 1984), two Loha’s (1987 and 1997), Jeetendra in two Suntan’s (in 1976 and 1993, spelt Santaan!), Rishi Kapoor in two movies named Jhoota Kahin Ka (1975, 2019), Mithun Chakraborty in two Guru's (1988 and 2007) and Rekha in Zameen Aasmaan (1972, 1984). Here’s where we come to very interesting trivia. In both cases, the only female singers were Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, while Kishore Kumar, the main male singer in the latter film, was also the only male singer and composer of the older movie.

What’s more, the new film had Sanjay Dutt as hero, while his father Sunil Dutt was the leading man in the 1972 film!

Speaking of father and son, Don (1978) was written by Salim-Javed. Its 2006 remake, with a major plot change, had lyrics by Javed alone and was written, directed and produced by his son, Farhan Akhtar. The new film re-created two older iconic Kalyanji-Anandji songs, ‘Khaike paan Banaraswala’ and ‘Yeh mera dil’.

Dillagi (1978) featured Dharmendra and was his home production, In 1999, he ‘presented’ (as in ghost-produced) another Dillagi, which featured his sons Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol together for the first time and which was produced and directed by Sunny himself. And both Sunny (first!) and then Dharmendra did films named Dacait!

Prolific composers and lyricists too had more than one film with the same title, whether spelt differently or otherwise. Shankar-Jaikishan (Chori Chori, Seema), R.D. Burman (Hifazat), Bappi Lahiri (Qaidi, Justice Chowdhury), Kalyanji-Anandji (Madari, the new 1994 flop being a remake of the older 1959 hit!) and finally Laxmikant-Pyarelal (Insaf / Insaaf, Inteqam / Intaqaam and two Chhaila Babu’s and Majboor’s! Prolific lyricists like Anand Bakshi (common to both Majboor’s 1974 and 1990) as well as a third film of that name earlier in 1964!), Majrooh Sultanpuri and others also did two movies named the same.

And finally, let us close on an amusing note! Ram Gopal Varma had directed Shiva, his Hindi debut, in 1990, which did average business. Unhappy with the way his production, James, had been directed by another director, he decided that the story was so good that it deserved proper treatment and remade it just a year later himself as Shiva! The new film also bombed!

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