Director Mani Ratnam’s 1988 blockbuster Agni Natchathiram is all set to be remade in Tamil and Telugu soon by T Ramesh, who is currently producing the Vishal-starrer Samar.
Ramesh confirms, “Yes, I’ve got the Tamil and Telugu remake rights of the film, and I’m currently holding talks with some of the top stars in Kollywood and Tollywood to be part of the project. Agni Natchathiram is a cult classic, and I’m thrilled about remaking it as a bilingual. It will be a big project and will star one top star from both the industries.” While it’s unclear if any of the original star cast will be retained, Ramesh informs, “I don’t want to take names now, but I will announce the cast and crew of the film in a couple of weeks.”
Agni Natchathiram to be remade is considered as one of the classics in the industry, and the two lead actors, Prabhu and Karthik, are still remembered for their roles in the film. All the songs, composed by Ilaiyaraaja, have also been chartbusters. Interestingly, the film was dubbed into Telugu as Gharshana and remade in Hindi as Vansh as well. Let’s hope the remake works the same magic at the box office.
There was a lot of interest generated in a possible remake of Agni Natchathiram in Kannada two years ago. It was reported that actor-director Chi Gurudutt was all set to remake the film with actors Aditya and Prajwal Devaraj. Sharmila Mandre and Aindrita Ray were touted to be the heroines of this project, which, unfortunately, fizzled out. Later on, efforts were made to salvage the project with the director trying to rope in actor Srimurali for one of the hero’s role. But, the project, which was to have taken off over two years ago, hasn’t seen any luck as yet.
