Priyadarshan is excited about his latest film ‘Billu Barbar’, his first film with King Khan. The movie is said to be a remake of the Southern hit ‘Katha Parayumbol’.
The director says,"The film is a tribute to friendship, the story of a simple ordinary hair stylist Bilas Rao Pardesi played by Irrfan Khan who is living in his village with his wife Bindiya played by Lara Dutta and two kids, till a super star, Shah Rukh Khan comes into their lives and everything changes. It is like the story of true friendship between Lord Krishna, the King of Dwarka and Sudama, a poor hermit. It inculcates humbleness and greatness and conveys the true meaning of friendship. But the film is not a 100 % remake of ‘Katha Parayumbol’ but a take off in my own way. Now it was a Malayalam film Katha Parayumbol which was remade into Tamil and Telugu, titled ‘Kuselan’ and ‘Kathanayakudu’, respectively. The character of the hair stylist was played by Sreenivasan in Malayalam, Jagapathi Babu in Telugu and Pasupathi in Tamil."
The failure of the highly hyped ‘Kuselan’ doesn’t disturb Priyan.
He analyses, "The original story was diluted when it was remade in Tamil and Telugu. Rajinikanth’s role, when compared to the role of Mammootty in the original Malayalam version wasn’t so flawless."
He assures that the Priyan stamp will stand out in this film.
He says, "The film is filled with my kind of comic touches, complete with the much loved village bumpkin characters, played by Asrani, Om Puri and Rajpal Yadav my regular actors. It also rekindles the Krishna – Sudama timeless friendship."
SRK’s character according to him is a high point in the film.
"A lot of changes in the screenplay were made to suit the larger than life image of Shah Rukh Khan. He doesn’t play himself but it doesn’t dilute the strength of the original script. As a result we have him doing as many as three item numbers with actresses Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra."
He talks about his forthcoming films.
He says, "I have five mega projects lined up. I am finalising a script about bank robbery for a film which may have Amitabh Bachchan and Akshaye Khanna. I’m directing it for Percept Pictures and a horror film called Grrr! as well as the Hindi remake of Majeed Majidi’s classic ‘Children of Heaven’ with Darsheel Safary, and Rituparna Dasgupta. I am doing Malayalam films too and will direct veteran scriptwriter M.T. Vasudevan Nair’s next script with my favorite actor Mohanlal."
He’s not bothered about images at all and is very defensive of his work.
He explains, "The Oscar went to the remake version of a Hong Kong film called ‘The Departed’. So I don’t mind if people say I’m a remake king. My "Kabhi Na Kabhi" was not a remake of any Malayalam hit but an original subject written by Javed Akhtar. All David Dhawan films have been rehashed from Bhagyaraj’s hit films. But I’ve movies like the acclaimed Kanchipuram which I’m very proud of. I made ‘Bhool Bhulaiya’ by sticking to the original Malayalam film Mani Chitra Thazhu starring Mohanlal and Shobhana which was made in 1981 and it was better than ‘Chandramukhi’ with Rajinikanth."
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Sneha Hazarika
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