“A well-made remake never fails”, Says Makshika Films Co-Founder Gaurav Kaushal

Makshika Films Co-Founder Gaurav Kaushal

In the last couple of years, Bollywood has been facing a lot of criticism by the media for remaking South Indian and Hollywood films. While some of these remakes have worked, there have been a few that have not been received well by the audience. While a ‘Jersey' fails, a ‘Kabir Singh' becomes a blockbuster. Young producer Gaurav Kaushal, who has recently launched his production house, believes that remakes will never go out of fashion.

"Our company will be remaking a lot of films. When you remake a film, you have to adapt it in the right way and make it palatable to the audience you are remaking it for. Being lazy or copy-paste methods won't work. You have to take the essence of the original film and lend the film you are making a unique voice. I strongly believe that a well-made remake never fails. We must not forget that the legendary Martin Scorsese won his first Oscar for The Departed which happened to be an official remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs", he reasons out.

According to Gaurav, adapting films is a lucrative option for new production houses. While his company Makshika Films is working on many original ideas, they have also bought the rights of many international films to be remade.

Elaborating further on his interest in remaking films, Gaurav says, "Even if you take a brilliantly written original script as a new producer, very few people will be interested in reading it. It is easy to approach studios, actors and all the bigwigs once you have bought the rights of a film. Since the original film is successful and holds a certain value, people show interest in being a part of it. For a young production house, remaking films is a good way to start out in the business."

Gaurav has bought the rights of a much-acclaimed French film which will be directed by Mihir Lath who, apart from working for the biggest production houses in India like Yash Raj Films, has been a part of several Hollywood projects like The Hundred Foot Journey and Tenet in different capacities. The film will be adapted in Hindi by writer Adhir Bhatt who has penned the screenplay for an Amazon Prime Video original show that will start streaming soon.