Old wine in new bottle?
It started with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’, following which filmmakers are cashing in on previous success mantras by remaking classics. So are they playing spoilt sport? TIMES NOW found three persons who should know best: Zeenat Aman, the ‘oomph’ icon of Bollywood, Helen, the first ‘item girl’ in the true sense of the term - and Waheeda Rehman the epitome of classic Indian beauty.
They shared a common past of fame and success. Fast forward to the present, and these beauties are ready to share something more. No, they won’t be seen sharing screen space - but their films are getting a makeover.
First up, it was ‘Don’ with Priyanka Chopra stepping into Zeenat’s shoes to recreate the aura of Roma, and now it’s the turn of ‘Qurbani’ and Mallika Sherawat, who will do a Zeenat in the chartbuster ‘Laila Main Laila’. And looks like Zeenat is in tune with the changing times.
“I think that it’s just a question of old wine in new bottles - just taking what was there, what worked, and introducing it to another generation,” she said.
Helen, too, had her share of remixes with ‘Mehbooba mehbooba’ being remade not once, but twice this year - but neither Mallika nor Urmila were able to match the steps of the original and the legendary Mehbooba girl. Helen however doesn’t care for the details.
“Everybody in the audience, the public are enjoying it. You just have to enjoy things and be happy and everybody’s being happy about the whole thing,” she said.
Next in line is Waheeda Rehman’s ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’ and ‘Howrah Bridge’ - Pritish Nandy will try and recreate the magic of the classics which he claims will be a “tribute” - but this beauty feels that classics should be left untouched.
“There are certain movies that you should not touch… let them be as they are,” said Waheeda.
Well, maybe for film directors it will be old wine in new bottle - but the debate on whether it’s a tribute or another way to spell success rages on.