“Remakes are not obsessions, just rebooting a good story” – Sameer Nair on why Hindi cinema continues to re-tell stories

January 5, 2022 - 9:30 AM IST

Sameer Nair, CEO of Applause Entertainment Limited, has said that remakes have been in trend since a long time and there’s no obsession over it rather just re-telling of a worthy story. Filmmakers and producers Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, Sameer Nair and Nikkhil Advani recently came together to talk about the industry, the pandemic, content creation, films, digital medium and obsession with remakes.

“Remakes are not obsessions, just rebooting a good story” – Sameer Nair on why Hindi cinema continues to re-tell stories

In Film Companion’s producer’s roundtable discussion with Anupama Chopra, while discussing whether remakes are just smart business because the source material is already known or is it creative bankruptcy, Sameer Nair said, “So first of all, we don't call them remakes. We call them adaptations. Two is that you don't have to go and see the original to then compare it because that's not what the larger audience does. The reason you're doing it is because the story that travels, you believe that's a universal story and can be re-told. And again, it's nothing new. It's been done forever. Martin Scorsese got his first Oscar award for a remake of a Hong Kong film, Departed. So, it's being done.”

“Aamir Khan is making Forrest Gump [Laal Singh Chaddha].So, there is no obsession, and it’s just a thing. It's re-telling of a story and rebooting it. They made Batman six times, the Americans themselves. So, this is quite common place in the series business, extremely common case,” he further explained.

“Kaun Banega Crorepati is the adaptation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I mean, there's nothing new. Big Brother is Bigg Boss. The reason we do it is because it's a good story. You think you can re-tell it in your land, in your culture, in your language; it's not actually made to be compared. It's not to say that now let's compare it frame-to-frame and see whether this is better or worse. It's a story in itself. And that's how the audience sees it. Because most of the time, the audience hasn't seen these, right? Your larger audience. And of course, it's good business because you know, it's a proven story. It's been done, its speed to market; you can do it quicker, you can cast it differently, and you can change a lot of things around it. At least, now people are paying money and paying licensing fees and doing it legitimately, unlike older days. We've made so many South movies into Hindi,” he added.

Sameer Nair is a media executive and business professional. He played a vital role in revamping the Star India's television network. These catapulted the channel to the highest viewership in 2000, making it a leading channel for a span of 9 years. The revamp of Channel V and the launch of Star Gold, Star Vijay, Star One and Star Utsav also happened under his watch.

Also Read: 20 Years Of KBC: Amitabh Bachchan & Sameer Nair reminisce about the game-show that was a game-changer