Dhamaal 2 has hit a roadblock. Though the bound script of the comedy is ready, the film can't go on the floors
Dhamaal 2 has hit a roadblock. Though the bound script of the comedy is ready, the film can't go on the floors.
Producers Ashok Thakeria and Indra Kumar (also the director) have been denied remake rights of Disney's 1993 Hollywood flick Cool Runnings on which Dhamaal 2 is based.
The duo was confident of obtaining the rights to make an Indian version of the comic caper. As a result, they had their team of writers in place before the necessary remake green signal.
Familiar procedureSays a source, "They were sure of the go-ahead from Walt Disney. For their earlier film Daddy Cool, Thakeria had managed to secure the rights for Boney M's popular song of the '80s Daddy Cool. As they had gone through the paperwork and technicalities involved, they thought it was a familiar procedure."
But much to their chagrin, Disney turned down their request. Adds the source, "This has now put Dhamaal 2 off track. For the past several months, a team of writers would be in their Maruti Internatioanl production office at Andheri working on the script. And just when it was complete and ready, they were shown a red signal which came as a jolt to them."
The makers are in a fix because they can't go ahead with the same plot as it would lead to copyright issues. As the source puts it, "Now that they have openly declared that they wanted to make an Indian version of it and have been denied, there is no way they can make anything similar to it. All the past months of efforts of the writers are wasted."
Indra Kumar however maintains, "The scripting of Dhamaal 2 is still on. The sequel has not gone on the floors because the script is not ready. Our film is a comedy but not based on any Hollywood film nor did we seek any remake rights. These are just stories that people are floating."
Dhamaal, which released in 2007 stars Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Ritiesh Deshmukh, Aashish Chaudhry and Jaaved Jaffrey. Most of the cast had agreed to star in the sequel as well.
Cool RunningsCool Runnings is a 1993 comedy flick loosely based on the Jamaica national bobsled team's debut at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Directed by Jon Turteltaub, it stars Leon Robinson, Doug E Dour, Maik Yoba, Rawle D' Lewis and John Candy. When the team fails to acquire the points necessary to get to the summer games, there's still a way for them to make it to the Winter Olympics. A wacky coach trains the the squad to make for the weirdest team but no one's more fun at the Winter Games!
