In the era of pan-India films, remakes have lost their market, says Vikrant Rona star Kiccha Sudeep

Kiccha Sudeep is not a fan of the terminology pan-India film; he’d rather call it an Indian movie if it is being presented in different languages to be screened across the country. The one change that pan-India films have brought in cinema today is that the number of remakes has reduced drastically.

Sudeep, who himself has been a part of a fair share of remakes back in the day, like Kempegowda, Maanikya, among others, is of the opinion that remakes have lost their sheen. He reckons that there is no market for remakes at a time when films are being made and released in multiple languages simultaneously. Speaking to a digital platform during the promotions of his upcoming film Vikrant Rona, which is getting released in 5 Indian languages and at least 9 foreign ones, including Arabic, German, Spanish and English, among others, Sudeep said that there was room for remakes until about 6-7 years ago.

But in recent times, not only are films being dubbed into different languages and released simultaneously across the country, they are also getting a wider audience thanks to OTT. Even regional films that do not get pan-India releases but have good word-of-mouth publicity, find enough takers on OTT, making remakes redundant. Anyone who’s even remotely invested in the story of the original would have watched the original. The Kannada superstar added that although remakes are still being made, they have no market. The box office performance of recent remakes is testimony to Sudeep’s statement, like, for instance, Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey.

Sudeep has just resumed promotions of his July 28 release, after a brief bout of fever kept him out of action for a couple of days. The actor is currently in Mumbai, where he will promote Vikrant for a couple of days. He will then head to Hyderabad, before returning to Bengaluru for the pre-release event. Shortly after, he will take off for the red carpet Dubai premiere of the film.