By Subhash K. Jha
"How can she be upset without seeing my 'Chashme Baddoor'? I have not taken anything from her film except the idea of three friends, two of whom are 'pukka kaminey' types. That apart, if Sai was to see my 'Chashme Buddoor', she wouldn't recognise it," said Dhawan, a director who is an expert in churning out hit comedies like "Hero No.1", "Biwi No. 1" and "Partner".
The 1981 movie starred Farooque Sheikh, Deepti Naval, Rakesh Bedi, Ravi Baswani and Saeed Jaffery, while the new one features Ali Zafar, Taapsee Pannu, Siddharth, Divyendu Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Anupam Kher and Lilette Dubey and it is doing well at the box office. Critics have also given the new version a thumbs up.
"Mine is a completely different film. Not one shot or frame in my film can be compared with hers. And we have changed the script considerably. Rishi Kapoor's character is a totally revamped avatar of what Saeed Jaffrey played in the original. Rishi even has a love angle with Lilette Dubey. The two of them are fantastic as a pair," he said.
The prolific director insists he has not given Paranjpye any reason to be offended.
"She's so senior. And so respected. I love her 'Chashme Buddoor'. But my film is not what she made 32 years ago. It can't be. Times have changed. What worked back then would look completely out of place now," he said.
The restored version of "Chashme Buddoor" and Dhawan's remake hit the screens together on Friday, a first in 100 years of Indian cinema.
This is Dhawan's first remake and he wasn't kicked by the idea of a revisiting the old classic.
"I've never remade any film before in my long career. Nor have I worked with newcomers in my entire career. My very first 'Taqatwar' starred Sanjay Dutt and Govinda. From then on I've only worked with stars. Also, though I've made many films about two friends bonding, I've never done a film on three friends. That is the flavour of the current times.
"From Farhan Akhtar in 'Dil Chahta Hai' to Abhishek Kapoor in 'Kai Po Che!', everyone had done bromance among three buddies. I wanted to give the theme my own spin," he said.
Dhawan says the project came to him from the producers.
"It was Viacom 18 who suggested I remake 'Chashme Buddoor'. I was initially apprehensive. But Viacom is thoroughly professional... They had worked all the legalities and the paper work. So, I didn't have to worry about stepping into anyone's territory," he said.
--Indo-Asian News Service
