Vikram Vedha flopped because it failed to recreate the legacy of the original classic

Vikram Vedha box office collection: Recently, Sunny Deol made a grand comeback in Bollywood with a crime thriller movie called CHUP.  In the movie, a psychotic murderer is killing film critics who are doing injustice to their profession. The Killer punishes critics for dishonouring the work of legendary directors, while applauding senseless content for money.

But the film had one special dialogue which explains the current trend of Bollywood. The dialogue states, “CINEMA is an ART not a XEROX machine”.

Remake: a new epidemic in Bollywood

It seems that Bollywood has taken a strategic distance with Creativity and Originality. Even the so-called mega stars like Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, and Hrithik Roshan are using the crutches of REMAKES. To highlight this growing epidemic in Bollywood, here is a list of a few famous Remakes Bollywood did this year.

• Laal Singh Chaddha – Aamir Khan starrer movie is an official remake of Forrest Gump. It took the team 14 years to make the Indian adaptation of the Hollywood film, which tanked miserably.
• Bachchan Paandey – Akshay Kumar plays a gangster in the Hindi remake of Tamil Film Jigarthanda. The gangster movie was off the screens before anyone knew about it.

Also Read: If there exists an art of destroying remakes, “THE PERFECTIONIST” Aamir Khan is certainly the artist

• Jersey: After the success of another remake, “Kabir Singh”, Shahid Kapoor did it again in the Hindi remake of the Telugu film with the same name. The audience preferred watching real sports matches instead.
• Cuttputlli: It seems that in the urge to give 4-5 releases in a year, Khiladi Kumar is doing Khela with acting, story and employing controversial script writers. Cuttputtli was a pathetic remake of the Tamil masterpiece Ratsasan. The best thing about it was that it was released on OTT and saved itself from utter humiliation.
• Vikram Vedha: Now Bollywood has ruined yet another classic. The Hrithik-Saif starrer movie is the Hindi remake of the Tamil film of the same name. It is trading slow at the box office and the buzz is subsiding due to the strong run of Ponniyin Selvan-I.

All these Bollywood remakes have failed miserably. The reason may be that the sole purpose of these remakes is to mint a profit without going into the depth of the story and character arc. They have not done justice to the original script, its message, or the performances of the original cast.

Why did this star-studded remake of the classic Vikram Vedha fail?

There are four major reasons that are glaringly obvious as to why the Hindi remake of Vikram Vedha failed.

1. It is not an original

As stated above, Vikram Vedha is a remake of a Tamil film with the same name. It is inspired by the Indian folktale Baital Panchisi. It includes Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan in lead roles. In the supporting roles are Radhika Apte, Rohit Saraf, Yogita Bihani, and Satyadeep Mishra. The original Tamil hit had Vijay Sethupathi and R Madhavan in the lead roles. The remake is a shadow of that cult classic.

Unlike the original film, which completed its shooting in Chennai, the Hindi remake was shot in the streets of Uttar Pradesh. SSP Vikram, played by Saif, is an honest cop in the Uttar Pradesh Police STF. He has only a black-and-white sense of good and evil. Vedha Betaal is a dreaded gangster from Kanpur.

Also Read: 1/10 – The Actual standards of Bollywood in Indian Cinema

In their action-packed cat-and-mouse chase, Vikram comes face to-face with Vedha thrice. Each time, Vedha poses a riddle to Vikram, which forces Vikram to re-evaluate what is right and wrong. The remake is choppy in places. It has left out some parts from the original and that has let the audience down. It clearly seemed as if the makers opted for style over substance.

2. Characters had a patchy accent and did not live up to their roles

The characters couldn’t pick up the accent of the area and completely messed up in trying to do so. For example, Saif and Radhika Apte excessively used ‘hum’ while Satyadeep Mishra, playing the role of SSP Abbas, uses ‘ama yaar’ disappointingly.

Many of the characters have merged the Bihari-Maithili accent with the eastern-UP accent. The ugly fusion gave birth to something that isn’t spoken in either region. The forced use of language throws the audience away from the main story line and hinders the narration of the story.

Also Read: For the first time, classical Hindi will be used in a film. Ironically, it’s from Tamil industry

3. The collection does not present a good story while it has a strong rival

The Hindi remake of Vikram Vedha is made with an investment of Rs 175 crore. It has collected Rs 37 crore in its opening weekend. The first three days’ collections of the movie are Rs 10.58 crores, Rs 12.51 crores, and Rs 13.85 crores.

The collection drastically dropped on Monday, and it clearly failed the Monday test. As per reports, it collected around Rs 4 crore on the first day of the week. In contrast to that, media reports claim that Ponniyin Selvan-I has collected around Rs 230 crores globally in just three days. Furthermore, it is gaining pace and traction among the audience.

4. The Controversial Past of Saif Ali Khan

Although the boycott trends have subsided, the controversial past of Saif Ali Khan and his statements have been a factor in the pathetic run of the movie. Especially in the initial weekend of the film, it is relatively new to the audience, and they don’t get the full picture as to what can be expected from the movie, so they line up in anticipation of a great watch. While in the latter, word of mouth publicity kicks in and it is definitely not gaining in that as it is just a shadow of the original master class.

Bollywood should grasp one thing. If it can’t add something to the legacy of a classic film, it should not even dare try to remake it. The same goes with the music and other entertainment industries. They should carve the dialogue of CHUP on their wallpaper, because cinema is an art form, not a xerox machine.

So, if it wants to revive its good fortune, it should start investing in script writers who can deliver quality content and have an appetite for risk to explore more genres and untouched subjects.

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