Amitabh Bachchan's Kaalia to be remade

Three of today's top stars, Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar, are on producer Rajat Rawail's wishlist for his remake of Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Kaalia, a film whose Hindi remake rights he picked up at `3 crore.

A still from Kaalia

With Big B film remakes finding success at the box office, it remains to be seen which star will step into his rather big shoes for this film.

Rajat confirms picking up Kaalia's rights but declines from commenting on casting. "I'm indebted to Salman Bhai because whatever I'm today is after his association with my film, Ready. I have a high regard for Ajay Sir for thebrilliant actor he is and Akshay Sir is one of the biggest box-office phenomena," he conceded, stressing that his priority was to get the script right. For that, he has to first get a director on board.

He explained, "Once I have the director on board, we'll get a writing team in place to give the story a contemporary feel. Only after the script is ready, will I approach a top star and I hope that whoever I offer the film, agrees to act in it."

Ask Rawail why he picked Kaalia and he puts it down to great content and brand value. "In today's times, I see more potential for Kaalia as a brand than it had way back then. While it has hard-hitting lines — like 'Hum jahaan khade ho jaate hain, line vahin se shuru ho jaati hai - it also has fantastic music for an action film. You remember the songs of Kaalia, like Jahaan Teri Yeh Nazar Hai, Jabse Tumko Dekha, and Tum Saath Ho Jab Apne," elaborates Rajat, who is also keen to retain a couple of songs from the original film and the background score with Kaalia echoing in it.

About the original Kaalia

Directed by Tinnu Anand, the film follows the journey of a simpleton Kallu. His tryst with crime starts when he attempts to steal from the house of Jaswant Shahani ( Amjad Khan) after his brother (Kadar Khan) meets with a serious accident at the former's factory. But it's too late as his brother dies. Then Shahani gets Kallu arrested for the robbery. How Kallu becomes the don Kaalia and takes revenge from Shahani forms the crux of the story.