There are many films in Bollywood that are remakes of southern cinema, including Gabbar Singh, Ghajini, Rowdy Rathore, Bachchan Pandey, Hera Pheri, Singham and Bodyguard. Most of these films have been superhits and some have also been flops. But do you know that there are many films in South too which are remakes of Bollywood. Here we are talking about a bollywood film which was remade in South and it was made on a very low budget but grossed 7 times more than that.
01
Actually, here we are talking about famous Bollywood actor-producer and director Ramesh Sippy’s movie ‘Sita Aur Geeta’. The film was released on 3 November 1972, inspired by Dilip Kumar’s film ‘Ram Aur Shyam’. This proved to be a milestone in Hema Malini’s career.
02
Hema Malini played a double role in this film written by Salim Javed. The film proved to be a milestone in Hema’s career and was well liked by the audience. Its Telugu title was ‘Ganga Manga’ (Ganga Manga 1973) and it was released in 1973. Let us tell you that its Tamil remake ‘Vani Rani’ was also made.
03
A popular actress of her time, Vanishree played the lead role in Ganga Manga and Vani Rani, which consisted of one story and various titles. She also brilliantly replaced Hema Malini in South and people loved her acting. Vanishree along with Krishna and Shobhan Babu played important roles in ‘Ganga Manga’. At the same time, in ‘Vani Rani’ Shivaji Ganesan and R. Muthuraman worked.
04
Interestingly, Sita-Gita was made on a budget of just 40 lakh rupees and earned nearly 7 times its earnings. The film earned 20 crores. According to Wikipedia, the film’s lifetime collection was Rs 19.53 crore, which was a blockbuster. It was a blockbuster in Tamil and Telugu as well. Dharmendra and Sanjeev Kumar were seen along with Hema in ‘Sita Aur Geeta’.
05
‘Ganga Manga’ became a blockbuster in Telugu and was later remade in 1974 in Tamil as ‘Vani Rani’ (Vani Rani Film 1974).
Next gallery