Malayalam remakes are ending up as big flops in Telugu, let's look at the recent outings

Remakes are a part and parcel of India cinema and have been attempted by every star in the country. When it comes to the south, Malayalam films are the ones which get remade the most in Telugu. Films like Drishyam have become blockbuster hits in Telugu cinema. They are chosen by stars as Malayalam films have unique content with solid narration. But things have changed in the last year or so as remakes have stopped clicking in Telugu cinema.

Megastar Chiranjeevi remade Mohan Lal's Lucifer as Godfather but the film ended as only an above average fare at the box office. Pawan Kalyan remade the Malayalam hit Ayyappanum Koshiyum in Telugu as Bheemla Nayak and this film too ended as just an average fare. The recent Sudheer Babu film, Hunt was the remake of Mumbai Police in 2013 ended as a disaster at the box office.

Yet another good hit in Malayalam, Kappela featuring Anna Ben was remade in Telugu as Butta Bomma and had Anikha Rajendran as the heroine. This film too flopped at the box office. Seeing all these failures one can easily understand the directors of these remakes are not bringing out the essence of the original and are changing the storyline and narration a lot hereby losing the plot in translation.

On the national front too, Akshay Kumar remade Prithiviraj's Driving Licence as Selfiee in Hindi but the film has become a dud at the box office. The core emotions and conflict point has been made so commercial that the audience has rejected the film right away. Other small Telugu films like Sekhar and Ishq were also remakes of Malayalam films but they too ended as flops.

The reason for this is also that these above said originals are available on OTT. Most of the people in the country have access to it and have no interest to see when the film is remade. So, the producers in Telugu cinema are thinking twice to remake Malayalam films in Telugu these days. The latest example is of Driving Licence which was supposed to be remade featuring Ram Charan and Ravi Teja. This film has now been shelved by the makers. Only time will tell which other Malayalam films will get remade in Telugu in the days to come.