Nine months after Aamir Khan's 'Ghajini' tore down the box office with its monstrous opening week, another remake of a major South Indian flick arrives this September.
Salman Khan's 'Wanted', a remake of the Telugu blockbuster film 'Pokkiri' will try and follow the footsteps of 'Ghajini', which was also a remake of a Tollywood film of the same name. But while Ghajini was lifted from the phenomenon that was Memento, Pokkiri was pure original unadulterated masala that drove audiences wild.
The Hindi version, Wanted promises to take the over the top factor a notch higher. Wanted is directed by Prabhu deva and also stars Ayesha Takia, Mahesh Manjrekar and Aseem Merchant. Ayesha will fill in the shoes of actress Illeyana D'Cruz who rocketed to fame after appearing in Pokkiri. Ayesha in fact was approached to play the role in the original Pokkiri but had declined the offer. Mahesh Manjrekar will play the role of an underworld don (played by Prakash Raj in he original film).
Strangely, Pokkiri was also remade in Tamil under the same name by Prabhu deva himself, and had Ghajini's Asin as the lead heroine. It is not yet known how much the script has been changed to cater to the Bollywood loving junta. However, most of the stunts that we saw in the trailer of Wanted appear to be the exactly the same as the ones in the original Mahesh Babu version of Pokkiri. Salman Khan stated that he really had to bend his back over this film, and that shooting was not very easy. Unlike his recent string of casual flicks, Wanted will have hundreds of mind blowing stunts. "I have done lot of love stories, lot of comedies, many of them were not appreciated enough. In this film, I had the zest to work hard. I have done that. So, let`s see if it works and if it doesn't," he said.
Salman confessed that it was difficult to get into the Rajnikanth groove, packing equal, but epic proportions of action, comedy, songs and drama into a single film. "Our films are usually a combination of all things in small proportions. Little bit dance, little bit romance and little bit comedy. But this film has everything in huge proportions, so had to train hard," said Khan.
Sallu has also lent his vocal chords for a special promotional song in Wanted. Sajid-Wajid who composed the score for the film said that “Salman sung the song so well "that he managed to catch a very high pitch, something that’s not normal for first-time singers." The song begins with now-famous dialogue, "Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di....." and packs in a lot more such one-liners. However, Salman’s contribution to the songs is not restricted to just dialogues. “Other than the dialogues, Salman bhai is heard singing ‘Teri yaad satati hai’ as a part of it. He has got the feeling of pain spot on. The genre of the song dictated that he sing in a laidback tone and he has done that perfectly fine,” said Wajid.
Salman Khan's 'Wanted', a remake of the Telugu blockbuster film 'Pokkiri' will try and follow the footsteps of 'Ghajini', which was also a remake of a Tollywood film of the same name. But while Ghajini was lifted from the phenomenon that was Memento, Pokkiri was pure original unadulterated masala that drove audiences wild.
The Hindi version, Wanted promises to take the over the top factor a notch higher. Wanted is directed by Prabhu deva and also stars Ayesha Takia, Mahesh Manjrekar and Aseem Merchant. Ayesha will fill in the shoes of actress Illeyana D'Cruz who rocketed to fame after appearing in Pokkiri. Ayesha in fact was approached to play the role in the original Pokkiri but had declined the offer. Mahesh Manjrekar will play the role of an underworld don (played by Prakash Raj in he original film).
Strangely, Pokkiri was also remade in Tamil under the same name by Prabhu deva himself, and had Ghajini's Asin as the lead heroine. It is not yet known how much the script has been changed to cater to the Bollywood loving junta. However, most of the stunts that we saw in the trailer of Wanted appear to be the exactly the same as the ones in the original Mahesh Babu version of Pokkiri. Salman Khan stated that he really had to bend his back over this film, and that shooting was not very easy. Unlike his recent string of casual flicks, Wanted will have hundreds of mind blowing stunts. "I have done lot of love stories, lot of comedies, many of them were not appreciated enough. In this film, I had the zest to work hard. I have done that. So, let`s see if it works and if it doesn't," he said.
Salman confessed that it was difficult to get into the Rajnikanth groove, packing equal, but epic proportions of action, comedy, songs and drama into a single film. "Our films are usually a combination of all things in small proportions. Little bit dance, little bit romance and little bit comedy. But this film has everything in huge proportions, so had to train hard," said Khan.
Sallu has also lent his vocal chords for a special promotional song in Wanted. Sajid-Wajid who composed the score for the film said that “Salman sung the song so well "that he managed to catch a very high pitch, something that’s not normal for first-time singers." The song begins with now-famous dialogue, "Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di....." and packs in a lot more such one-liners. However, Salman’s contribution to the songs is not restricted to just dialogues. “Other than the dialogues, Salman bhai is heard singing ‘Teri yaad satati hai’ as a part of it. He has got the feeling of pain spot on. The genre of the song dictated that he sing in a laidback tone and he has done that perfectly fine,” said Wajid.