Will Bollywood be the new trea­sure trove for the Tamil film in­dustry? It may

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still be early days to say that with certainty, but Hindi fi­lms will surely start attracting more and more Tamil creative eyeballs.

Two well-appreciated a­nd commercially successful Hindi films — A Wednesday, directed by Neeraj Pandey and Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met — have turned out to be money-spinners in th­eir new avatars in Tamil. While A Wednesday was remade in Tamil as Unnaipol Oruvan and released in Se­ptember, Jab We Met has been remade as Kanden Kaadhalai and is now running in theatres.

Produced by Kamal Haasan under his home ba­nner, Rajkamal Films International and UTV, Unnaipol Oruvan turned out to be a clean hit at the box office. It is estimated to have grossed over Rs 20 crore.

“Rajkamal Films International would have neatly netted a minimum of Rs 15-20 crore from the venture through sale of theatrical and satellite rights, besides revenue from the Telugu version,” a leading distributor for Tamil films said on condition of anonymity.

According to him, the film turned a clear winner, thanks to its right length (under two hours) and cast, despite the people’s reluctance to accept savvy Kamal Haasan as the “common man,” he said. While the Tamil version featured Kamal Haasan and Malayalam star Mohal Lal in the two key roles played by Nase­er­uddin Shah and Anupam Kh­er in the Hindi version, for the Telugu version, Ka­mal roped in Tollywood star Ve­nkatesh for the cop’s role.

“This helped the movie attract audience interest ac­ross south,” he said. In fact, Rajkamal Films is said to have sold the Telugu version for around Rs 10-11 crore.

As regards, Kanden Kaadhalai, Moser Baer, the original producer of the film, sold it to Sun Pictures on a first copy basis to net a table profit. Released last Friday, the film opened well at the box office, thanks to the aggressive marketing by Sun Network and positive reviews.

“Kanden Kaadhalai is doing well. In fact, even better than expected, while Unnaipol Oruvan did fairly well for its budget,” says Abirami S Ramanathan, a leading exhibitor and distributor in Chennai. “Both where well made films,” he added.

“Well-made remakes wo­rk. Not all remakes,” says G Dhananjayan, COO, Moser Baer India. He is right, as another Bollywood hit film, Taxi No. 9211, when remade in Tamil, bombed.

“When we decided to remake Jab We Met in Tamil, we only retained the concept and reworked the content to suit the local culture. Thanks to the efforts, Kanden Kadhalai is also doing well at the box office and will gross around Rs 10-12 crore from theatres alone,” Dhananjayan added. Despite selling the film to Sun Pictures, Moser Baer bought the Coimbatore territory rights for distribution. The confidence seems to have paid off.