Bollywood Is Back With Their Remake-sequel Hybrids

Bollywood making remakes of South movies is so common that after a point, they have even began to make spiritual sequels of the film they have initially remade with more remakes. A big example of this is Tiger Shroff’s Baaghi series. Baaghi was a remake of the iconic Prabhas-Trisha starrer Varsham.

Baaghi 2, which has nothing in common with Baaghi, is a remake of the Adivi Sesh thriller film Kshanam. Then came Baaghi 3, which was a remake of Lingusamy’s police drama film Vettai, which starred Madhavan and Arya. Vettai itself was remade in Telugu as Tadhaka, which featured Sunil and Naga Chaitanya.

This remake-sequel hybrid trend popularized by Tiger Shroff is now being adapted by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. In 2018, Karan Johar’s banner made Dhadak, a film that launched star kids Janhvi Kapoor and Ishaan Khattar. Dhadak is a remake of a National Award winning Marathi film Sairat, a love story between an upper caste girl and a lower caste boy. Six years later, in 2024, Karan Johar is making Dhadak 2. Dhadak 2 is a remake of Pariyerum Perumal, a Tamil film where a boy and girl from different castes fall in love. Dhadak 2, starring Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri, will release this year in November.

While remakes in Bollywood are being heavily criticised by the audience for the industry’s lack of creativity, it looks like the sequel-remake hybrid model is designed to deflect criticism about the film being a remake, while ensuring the film gets easily recognised and marketed due to its connection with its “prequels”.