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Harshvardhan Rane and Vicky Kaushal to feature in Bejoy Nambiar's remake of Mani Ratnam's Agni Natchathiram

13 May 2016

Mani Ratnam's 1988 melodrama Tamil melodrama Agni Natchathiram is now being remade into Hindi by one of his most ardent disciples Bejoy Nambiar. Nambiar has been closely associated with Mani Ratnam and has assisted him on several of his films. When Bejoy made his directorial debut with Shaitaan, Mani Ratnam went out of his way to support his protege.

It therefore comes as no surprise to know that Bejoy will now remake a Mani Ratnam film. However the fact that Agni Natchathiram has already been re-made into Hindi does make Bejoy's aspirations somewhat redundant.

Mani's film was remade in 1992 as Vansh with Siddharth Ray and Sudesh Berry cast as two warring step brothers. The film directed by action director Pappu Varma was a stunted stilted stiff and vapid remake of Mani's film. It bombed.

Bejoy's film will star Harshvardhan Rane and Vicky Kaushal as the step brothers. When I asked him why he has chosen to remake a film that has already been done Bejoy explained, "I think the story still resonates and if done well can really connect. I've just started writing and I am in the process of locking the script."

One of the highlight if Agni Natchathiram was the music by Ilaiyaraja which was recreated note-by-note by Anand-Milind in Vansh. Apparently Bejoy will also re-visit the original score by Ilaiyaraja in his version of Mani Ratnam's melodrama.