Just one week before Kabir Singh, the Hindi remake of Telugu original Arjun Reddy, hit the theatres on 21 June, the trailer of the Tamil remake of the film, titled Adithya Varma, was released. Perhaps, an attempt to cash in on the buzz around the original.
Even as Kabir Singh rages at the box office, just like the original did when it released in 2017, Adithya Varma will attempt to win over the audiences with the same story and characters the third time over.
Interestingly, this is not the first time the trailer of the Tamil remake has been released. The film, earlier titled Varmaa, was supposed to release before Kabir Singh, but in February this year, the project was scrapped though it was ready.
Kabir Singh has the audience hugely divided. While some have called the film out for its glorification of toxic masculinity and misogyny, many argued that the content wasn’t problematic, but entertaining. The same criticism had come the way of its original, but it was a lot more muted then, perhaps because it was restricted to a regional audience.
The fans of the original are so hardcore though that any criticism against the film has met with strong defense from them. The same happened when the trailer of Varmaa, the original title of the Tamil remake, released last year.
The trailer met with criticism from fans of the original, mainly for not sticking to the original. Director Bala Varma seemed to have followed his own vision for the remake.
In February, producer of the Tamil remake, Mukesh Mehta, issued a statement that read: “We at E4 Entertainment are not at all happy with the final version handed over to us (director Bala had made the film on a first copy basis) and due to various creative and other differences, we have decided not to release this version. Instead, we will start afresh, and shoot a new Tamil version of Arjun Reddy with Dhruv as the main lead by staying true to the soul and intention of the original.”
But fans of the cult Telugu hit were extremely unhappy with the way the trailer had turned out, and social media was flooded with a negative response to the trailer. The production, music and direction looked slightly different from the original and that didn’t go down well with many. Plus, the film had a debutante actor in the lead, star kid Dhruv Vikram (son of actor Vikram), and he couldn’t make the impact created by Vijay Deverakonda who played the title role in Arjun Reddy.
In February, producer Mukesh Mehta issued a statement that read: “We at E4 Entertainment are not at all happy with the final version handed over to us (director Bala had made the film on a first copy basis) and due to various creative and other differences, we have decided not to release this version. Instead, we will start afresh, and shoot a new Tamil version of Arjun Reddy with Dhruv as the main lead by staying true to the soul and intention of the original.”
Bala stepped down from Varmaa and issued a press release that read: “I’m forced to safeguard creative freedom. It was my own decision to relieve myself from this project. Considering Dhruv Vikram’s future, I would like to end this here.”
The reason for the negative response could be because Arjun Reddy was barely a year old when the Tamil remake went on floors, and the memory of the original was fresh in the minds of those who had lapped it up.
No wonder then that the makers of the Hindi remake decided to play it safe by bringing Sandeep Reddy Vanga, the director of the original, on board to make a frame-by-frame remake of Arjun Reddy. Any deviation could have once again caused a furore.
Apart from Dhruv Vikram, most of the team was replaced. Ravi K Chandran was brought on to do the cinematography, Banita Sandhu and Priya Anand replaced the original female leads and Arjun Reddy’s assistant director Gireesaaya was hired as director.
The trailer that has dropped now is an indication that once again its a frame by frame remake of the original. Perhaps, that should keep the fans happy. The release date of the film hasn’t been announced yet.
But does the audience really need a third version of Arjun Reddy so close on the heels of the other two? Are we ready for more toxicity?
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