Karan Johar is, in a way, the king of remakes. He has remade several regional and Hindi films in the past and is all set to remake another one. The latest one to join the list is the Tamil film, Pariyerum Perumal, which featured Kathir and Anandhi. It was directed by Mari Selvaraj from Ranjith Pandurangan of Neelam Productions. The movie received several accolades when it released in 2018.
“This is the first Tamil film that Karan has acquired the rights to remake. He has remade films from other languages — English, Hindi and Marathi. But he is now looking at remaking Pariyerum Perumal. He has also acquired the rights of the Malayalam film, Driving License, which he is doing with Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi,” informs a source.
Sharing more insights into the film, the source adds, “Like Dhadak, Pariyerum Perumal, which means ‘the God who mounts a horse’ and is also the name of the lead character in the film, is a love story between a boy and a girl belonging to different castes. The movie revolves around Perumal ordeals of being with the love of his life.”
Karan’s tryst with remakes started with We Are Family in 2010, which was a remake of the Hollywood film, Stepmom. This was followed by the 1990 Amitabh Bachchan-starrer, Agneepath. He brought it to the big screen in 2012 with Hrithik Roshan headlining the remake. Then came Brothers, starring Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra in 2015. It was a remake of the American thriller, Warrior. Karan had also acquired the remake rights of the Vijay Deverakonda-starrer Telugu film, Dear Comrade, but the pandemic put a spanner in the works of the movie. Karan had even wanted to remake and had brought rights of the French film, The Intouchables, but things didn't work out in his favour.
On the work front, Karan is set to make his directorial comeback with Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. The movie is fronted by Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. It also features veteran actors Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan and Shabana Azmi.
