Jersey, Ghajini, Bodyguard: Five times South directors remade their own hits in Bollywood

A. R. Murugadoss remade his own 2005 Tamil hit 'Ghajini' starring Suriya in the Hindi film of the same name that starred Aamir Khan in the leading role and Asin making her Bollywood debut, who reprised her role from the original. 'Ghajini' is the first Bollywood film that crosses the Rs 100 crore mark at the box office, thus creating the 100 crore club.

In 2011, Siddique remade his own 2010 Malayalam romantic comedy 'Bodyguard' starring Dileep and Nayanthara in the lead roles in the Hindi language with Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan in the lead. It turned out to be a massive commercial blockbuster earning Rs 234 crores at the box office.

Raghava Lawrence had starred as the main lead in the 2011 Tamil horror comedy 'Kanchana', which he had directed also. In 2020, his remake 'Laxmii' with Akshay Kumar in the lead was premiered on Disney+ Hotstar. The Tamil film was a box office hit, but the Hindi remake met with extremely negative reviews.

Sandeep Reddy Vanga made his directorial debut in 2017 with the Telugu blockbuster 'Arjun Reddy starring Vijay Deverakonda in the titular role. In 2019, Vanga remade his own film in Hindi with Shahid Kapoor playing the titular character in 'Kabir Singh'. While the Telugu film was hugely successful, the Hindi remake turned out to be a blockbuster with collections of over Rs 350 crores.

As 'Jersey' releases on April 14, it is the remake of the 2019 Telugu film of the same title with Gowtam Tinnanuri helming both the films. The Hindi film has Shahid Kapoor and Mrunal Thakur in the roles originally essayed by Nani and Shraddha Srinath respectively. The Telugu film earned two National Film Awards, and there are huge expectations from the 2022 film as well.