Not cashing on success of south remakes in Bollywood: Gautham Menon

At a time when South movie remakes are keeping the Bollywood cash registers ringing, noted Southern filmmaker Gautham Menon, who is making his directorial debut in Hindi films with 'Ek Deewana Tha' says he is not cashing on the success of Tollywood cinema here. 'It is a good thing that our films are remade here and are doing well. But it does not mean that if south film remakes are doing well so I am here or it is the right time for me to make a film in Hindi. I have already made 'Ek
Deewana Tha' in Tamil and Telugu and it did well. I was always looking to do this film in Hindi...I thought it would be universally appealing,' Gautham told PTI in an interview. 'It took us some time to come up with the Hindi version as we had pre-production work - planning dialogues to getting dates of Prateik. Since February 2010, we wanted to do this film much before the hindi version of 'Bodyguard', 'Ready' and 'Singham' came out and became hits,' he said.

'Ek Deewana Tha' is a remake of Gautham's own Tamil and Telugu film 'Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa' (February 2010), which
was a huge hit down south. 'This is entirely my film...I have produced it, written the screenplay, dialogues...so it is all my setup. I am confident of my work but finally I leave it to the audience whether they like it or not,' he said. Earlier, Gautham had got quite a few opportunities to make a film in Hindi. He was approached to make 'Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein' and the most recently released action film 'Force' starring John Abraham. Both these films were made by Gautham in Tamil as 'Minnale' and 'Kaakha Kaakha'respectively. 'I did not take up making movies in Hindi as somehow I felt I wasn't ready. But this time I thought I must give it a shot. And I always wanted to do a big Hindi film and this seemed like the right opportunity. I feel it is right kind of
platform for me to showcase whatever I have learnt from South film industry. This film has a universal theme...its a love story,' Gautham said. The romantic-drama film featuring Prateik Babbar and Amy Jackson in lead roles, is up for release on February 17. PTI