Rajkummar Rao’s Chupke Chupke remake bags rights to original title

Filmmakers Bhushan Kumar and Luv Ranjan have managed to get the rights to the title of Chupke Chupke for their remake of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee classic.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s cult classic comedy Chupke Chupke is being remade with Rajkummar Rao. He is stepping into the shoes of Dharmendra for the new version and the film will be named after the original Amitabh Bachchan-starrer itself. Producers Bhushan Kumar and Luv Ranjan have bagged the rights to the original title.

A Mumbai Mirror report said the makers realised recently that they do not have the rights to the title of the film. Manish Goswami had reportedly registered Chupke Chupke for his production house. “However, when Bhushan’s company approached him, he immediately issued a No Objection letter to the Film and Television Producers Guild of India as he didn’t have a suitable script ready,” a source told the tabloid. “We’re industry colleagues, so, we should help one another in times of need,” Manish also told the daily.

Talking about taking up the film, Rajkummar had said in April, “It’s a big responsibility to step into his (Dharmendra’s) shoes. The scripting is underway now. We know that we can’t match Hrishida’s standard, but we will try to put our best foot forward.”

A still from Chupke Chupke.

Dharmendra essayed the role of botany professor Parimal Tripathi who takes upon the person of Pyaare, a crazy driver who is obsessed with purity of language. Amitabh played Parimal’s friend and English professor Kumar.The 1975 film revolved around Parimal who wants to fool his wife’s brother-in-law because she is too impressed with him and claims he knows everything. Parimal wants to break the aura around the brother-in-law and prove that even he can be fooled. The film was an ensemble cast with Sharmila Tagore, Asrani, Jaya Bachchan and Om Prakash, among others.

Six years ago, filmmaker Umesh Shukla had announced his plans to remake Chupke Chupke with Paresh essaying the role played by Om Prakash in the original but the plans never materialised. “We have made many changes in the script. It’s not a remake, it is an adaptation of Chupke Chupke. Writer Sajid and Farhad have written the script and the film is in its final draft stage. It’s a fun-filled film. Once we finish the script, we will finalise the other actors as well. So far, we have only finalised Paresh Rawal, who will play Om Prakash’s role,” Umesh had said.