YRF Films and Dibakar Bannerjee recently announced their first directorial venture together: a reboot of Saradindu Bannerjee’s Detective Byomkesh Bakshi. While it’s a first for Bollywood, Hollywood, however, is in the midst of a wave of reboots for 2013-14.

A major part of the industry enjoys making movie franchises backed by major production houses such as Fox Studios (X-Men), Paramount Pictures (Marvel), MGM (James Bond) and Universal Studios (Jaws). A reboot is the retelling of a story, using new cast and crew, employing a new perspective to characters and essentially a new vision for a previously released film or franchise. It is different from a remake because it takes the story forward and in the process shows the growth of characters and plotlines.
“Every reboot is a retelling of the original story through the voice of a director. Directing films such as Superman or Spiderman is not just a matter of putting things together and portraying it in a 120-minute show. Fictional tales such as these depend on the director’s idea of the story and how he envisions the entire concept,” says film critic Mayank Shekhar.
Hollywood has a plethora of film franchises, so naturally the reboot concept is more prevalent. With Bollywood having at least seven or eight running franchises, there is scope for it to become a trend here as well. “The quintessential ‘Bollywood superhero’ is defined so because of his ability to kill 18 villains with a flick of his wrist. However, with the making of Krrish and Ra.One the entire action figure concept has just been brought into perspective. Reboots need a plot and a storyline to be worked upon. Byomkesh Bakshi is the only film which can be termed as a reboot in Bollywood. Even Don, is essentially a remake. For people who love to read creating a reboot with an updated avatar of a superhero or an action figure only makes it more popular than the original one as it makes more impact on the people,” explains Mayank.
The fate of reboots, according to director Rajat Kapoor, lies in the hands of production houses as they are the ones that decide on the budget for such films. “Star power is unnecessary for a superhero/action figure film because the film is not about the actor, but about the character. All he needs is a magnetic personality so that when someone like Christian Bale, who does not plan to become Batman again, walks out, those big boots are filled by someone worthy. James Bond faced a tough time when Sean Connnery walked out of the series. I believe Daniel Craig is the only James Bond that actually fits the bill after Connery. While most superheroes are remembered by the face of the actor who first enacted them, sometimes the more recent films become more popular because of the way the crowd identifies with the current situation. The best example is that of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which identifies the world’s present situation with that of Gotham city,” explains Rajat.
According to Whatculture.com out of the 250 major films that will be released this year, 30 are sequels, three prequels, 17 are reboots, four remakes, one spin-off and seven adaptations. As tastes change and production values too, the audience is left with extremes: either wildly popular reboots or extremely poor ones. “Like any successful film genre, reboots have no formula beyond what is generic to it. Some reboots create a new and more contemporary version of the original, while others only bring back the original as an evergreen classic. A reboot is a tribute to the fictional character or icon and is a marketing tool that is meant to test the limits of one’s love for a superhero. Therefore the actor has to step into the character accordingly,” says film buff Sayandeb Chowdhury, assistant professor at Ambedkar University, Delhi. What remains to be seen is whether the film industry, especially Hollywood is gradually becoming addicted to reboots or whether it plans to become a little more original.