There was a time Boney Kapoor would be the only northern producer studying southern film box-office returns for possible remakes.
Sixteen of the 31 films he has produced in his career have been remakes of southern films-in addition to several films he has sourced for his brother, actor Anil, among them some of his biggest hits such as Beta and Virasat. But now he has company.
Every major Mumbai star is currently acting in a major remake. Aamir Khan has just wrapped up Ghajini, directed by the same man who steered Surya through the Tamil version (which is loosely adapted from Christopher Nolan's art house hit Memento).
Shah Rukh Khan is waiting to shoot two songs for closure on Billoo Barber, adapted from Katha Parayumbol in Malayalam, and seen as Kuselan in Tamil, starring Rajnikant.
Salman Khan has just three songs to go before the remake of Pokkiri, called Wanted: Dead And Alive, ends (purchased by Boney from the producers of the original in Telugu starring Mahesh Babu and directed by Prabhudeva).
Even Punjab da puttar Akshay Kumar has acted in Bhool Bhulaiyya, adapted by Priyadarshan from Manichithrathazhu which lent itself to the Tamil version, Chandramukhi.
That's not all. Mumbai's corporates, in their desire to become as Priyadarshan says, "pan-Indian", have discovered that acquisitions in the south give them scale and content. Reliance is spending close to Rs 200 crore on making films in the south, part of what Reliance Entertainment Chairman Amit Khanna calls its strategy to be present everywhere at once.
Poi solla porom: Produced by Priyadarshan, a Tamil remake of the Hindi sleeper comic hit, Khosla ka Ghosla
UTV has struck one-film alliances with actors Vikram and Surya. Eros has acquired a 51 per cent stake for $33 million in a Tamil movie company, Ayngaran International, and is producing the much-talked-about Rajnikant film, Robot.
And Percept is in talks with a southern major to gain a foothold in an industry which produces an average of 150 films a year (in Tamil) compared to 200 in Hindi. It's not just Rajnikant dancing to Daler Mehndi in Kuselan and Shah Rukh doing his yanna rascala act in Om Shanti Om. It's a marriage of southern content and northern cash.
It's also a marriage of convenience. There are only so many foreign language films that Bollywood can rip off and with Hollywood production houses setting up base in India, it's getting difficult to steal stories from them without paying copyright fees.
Instead, films from down south are less expensive (though Boney has just paid Rs 1 crore for the remake rights of the Telugu hit, Bommarilu, being made in Hindi as It's My Life, and already remade in Tamil as Santosh Subramaniam). They also come with their own band of super-trained technicians.
Take the case of Ghajini. Not only is it being directed by A. Murugadoss who helmed the original, but even the main crew is from Chennai-from Ravi K. Chandran who's behind the camera to Peter Hein who is masterminding the action.
It's a way of working that appeals to those who believe in quick results. Says Jayanth Paranji, who directed the Telugu remake of Munnabhai MBBS, "If you're working with a superstar like Chiranjeevi, a 7 a.m. call means he will be ready, with make-up, by 6.45 a.m. It's not the same in Bollywood."
Sultan—The warrior: A Rs 60-crore 3D-animated mythological produced by Rajnikant’s daughter Soundarya with Reliance
Add to that the opening up of the diaspora for Tamil films (in Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka) and it's no wonder that Bollywood is seeking southern comfort.
This sudden bonding is also being bolstered by a handful of individuals. There's Priyadarshan, who is producing Poi Solla Porom, a remake of Khosla ka Ghosla (yes, sometimes even Bollywood can become a source of stories) in Tamil.
And having decided to do Hindi films for money and southern films for love and artistic satisfaction, as he prepares to start Dhan Dhana Dhan with Akshay, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal, Priyadarshan is quite excited about his Tamil film Kanjivaram that has been selected for the Toronto Film Festival. "In Mumbai, no one wants me to deviate from the formula, but in the south, I can experiment," he says.
Not everyone is happy with this state of affairs. Director S. Ramanarayanan, also president of the Tamil Film Producers' Council, has said the entry of the Mumbai corporate world has inflated star salaries down the line, beyond the reach of southern majors.
But lower costs and greater transparency are among the major factors attracting them. With even newcomers like Ranbir Kapoor and Imraan Khan being paid in the vicinity of Rs 6 crore, established actors like Babu (who don't get more than Rs 1 crore) seem like bargains.
Kanjivaram: Art house Tamil film, directed by Priyadarshan, starring Prakash Raj, produced by Percept
With Bollywood discovering that the script is the king, apart from the obvious badshahs and shehenshahs, corporates are sold on the scripts. In any case, says UTV's Ram Mirchandani, the best stories have always been told in Tamil cinema.
UTV's got Kannamoochi Enada, directed by Mani Ratnam's chief assistant Priya V., and the bilingual Lost in Chennai, directed by Anand Subramaniam. Reliance is a 50 per cent partner in Soundarya Rajnikant's animation film, Sultan: The Warrior.
It is also bankrolling Shaji N. Karun, M.S. Sathyu and Mani Ratnam's new films, while signing on Cheran for a sequel to Autograph. "A market exists everywhere and we aim to be a national leader in the movie space as well," says Khanna.
Because what the southern industry lacks in size (a Hindi blockbuster now releases across more than 1,800 screens whereas even Sivaji: The Boss got only 600 screens worldwide), it makes up for in sheer originality. It's a relationship that looks like it will last, even if neither actually learns to speak the other's language.
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