Tamil remake of ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ to release on 29 December

Tamil film The Great Indian Kitchen, a remake of the critically acclaimed Malayalam film by the same name, will release in cinemas on 29 December. The Tamil film stars Aishwarya Rajesh and Rahul Ravindran and has been directed by R Kannan.

Incidentally, The Great Indian Kitchen will also be remade in Hindi with Sanya Malhotra playing the lead role. It will be directed by Arati Kadav known for Netflix original Cargo and produced by actor Harman Baweja.

Originally, The Great Indian Kitchen stars Nimisha Sajayan and Suraj Venjaramood in lead roles in the Malayalam version. It is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video after initially being rejected by top OTT platforms for its controversial theme.

The Jeo Baby-directed film touches upon the politics around the entry of women into the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala and the stigma associated with menstruation. Having made its way to a niche Malayalam service Neestream last January, the film had elicited much praise and stirred considerable debate on the roles defined for women by a patriarchal society.

Known for their entertaining and emotional storylines, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada movies have provided ample fodder for remakes in different languages over the years. Tiger Shroff-starrer Baaghi 2 (a remake of a Telugu movie Kshanam), Ranveer Singh’s action comedy Simmba (Telugu film Temper) and Salman Khan’s action romantic comedy Bodyguard (Malayalam film of the same name) are some of the biggest blockbuster remakes in recent years, with profits of ₹101 crore, ₹100 crore and ₹74 crore, respectively.

Film experts said south Indian cinema has perfected the art of making commercially viable mainstream entertainers with drama and emotions, a formula Bollywood is yet to get right. Most south Indian language films, especially those in Tamil and Telugu, know how to appeal to the lowest common denominator without losing the sense of the plot.