After a not-so-successful Zanjeer remake, Rajat Rawail, who had announced that he had plans to remake Kaalia (1981) has shelved the movie.

A producer-distributor tells us that the failure of Zanjeer, starring Ram Charan, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt and Prakash Raj, has made people loose interest in remakes from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. “Most of Amitji’s ‘angry young man’ films were in keeping with the socio-economic situation prevalent then. And, one can’t just pick up a Big B hit and remake it. Such a move is very risky,” says the source.

Rajat says, “Any remake of an Amitabh Bachchan film has to be justified by the actor, the script and its execution, like how Hrithik Roshan justified Agneepath (2012). After working on the script for a year, I couldn’t crack it to meet the benchmark of Amitji’s Kaalia. Considering the ground reality, I decided to drop the idea.”