In remakes, the soul often goes missing: Mohanlal

Mumbai: At a time when South film remakes are popular in Hindi, Malayalam superstar Mohanlal feels that even if various elements are added to the content, the soul of the original is lost when it is re-produced in different languages several times.

Priyadarshan`s psychological thriller, `Bhool Bhulaiya` was a remake of Malayalam film, `Manichitrathazhu` that had Mohanlal as the lead. Later several Hindi films including `Wanted`, `Singham` and `Bodyguard` followed suit with `Rowdy Rathore` being the latest one in the list. "Remaking films is not happening for the first time. A lot of Hindi films are made in Malayalam, Tamil. If I do a very good film in Tamil, then only a portion of population will watch, if same thing is made in Hindi then it will be seen by the entire nation and even internationally," Mohanlal told PTI. Ask him if the crux changes if you remake a film number of times, Mohanlal says, " With different actors, there are different ways of shooting a film but more or less the content is same. But sometimes the soul will be missing. It happens. And it is a question of how you make it. In the replica of a film there will sure be difference from the real one." "Every film should have a soul... If it is missing then the film will not do well. Hence sometimes one feels something is missing in the film and that is the soul. If you miss the soul then there is no life," he said. Mohanlal feels when you remake a film in Hindi few things like dance, song etc do get added. "Hindi films have a bigger market, so you have to make it big. You have to sacrifice emotional part or certain things. And you have to put more dance and other stuff," he said. "`Manichitrathazhu` was a hit in every language. Both Tamil and Malayalam cinema is different. If Rajinikanth is acting people need that kind of extra thing may be say dance or anything else without which the film won`t run there," he added. Lot of actors are doing south remakes here, but Mohanlal is not keen on doing one. "There are wonderful actors here, why should I come and do it (remake)," he concluded. PTI