Will Bholaa Shankar benefit because of Vedalam’s absence on OTT? Chiranjeevi responds

Ever since the boom of the OTTs post COVID-19 lockdown, there has been a constant debate on the feasibility of remakes across industries. Several remakes like Jersey, Vikram Vedha, Tadap, Hit: The First Case have not performed well in Hindi while a film like Drishyam 2 was the rare exception in this scenario. In Telugu too, but for Bheemla Nayak, most remakes failed to perform well in 2022.

Earlier today in a media interaction, while responding to a question about remakes losing their charm because of the availability of originals on OTTs, Chiranjeevi said, “In most of my remakes, we have changed the story considerably to suit the tastes of Telugu audience. If you noticed, there were many changes we made to Lucifer in the case of Godfather too.”

“Surprisingly, audiences thronged theatres to watch Godfather despite Lucifer being one of more widely viewed films on OTT. Earlier, we used to remake films from other languages because we felt it would work with a new audience that hasn’t watched the original. However, times have changed and audiences don’t mind watching the original version these days,” he added.

“Bholaa Shankar, for instance, is the remake of Vedalam and the latter isn’t available on any of the OTT platforms. Yet, we’re approaching it like a new film to cater to the sensibilities of Telugu audiences,” Chiranjeevi shared. Directed by Meher Ramesh, Bholaa Shankar stars Tamannaah as the female lead while Keerthy Suresh plays Chiranjeevi’s on-screen sister.

Raghu Babu, Rao Ramesh, Murali Sharma, Ravi Shankar, Vennela Kishore, Tulasi, Pragathi, Sri Mukhi, Bithiri Sathi, Satya, Getup Srinu, Rashmi Gautam, Uttej, Prabhas Seenu too play important roles in Bholaa Shankar, which is expected to release in the first half of 2023. Vedalam, the film that inspired the Chiranjeevi starrer, released in 2015 and was headlined by Ajith, Lakshmi Menon and Shruti Haasan.

Meanwhile, Chiranjeevi’s Waltair Veerayya, directed by Bobby Kolli, is hitting screens across the globe on January 13.