Remakes are failing: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury

As a fellow director, I don't want to pull another person down, but remakes are so not me! There were many offers to remake my own films like Anuranan, Antaheen and Buno Haansh in Hindi, but I couldn't put myself to do any. Fact is, once a film is done, it's done.What's most important for a filmmaker is his understanding of life. I dig out situation, facts and stories from my own life; I look around and find inspiration from new things every day . Also, Bengal boasts of a treasure trove of literature. There are stories by Ashapurna Devi, Sanjib Chakraborty , Sunil Ganguly and hundreds of other greats that can be turned into films. If you are, on the other hand, simply remaking a south film, you are compromising on your own creative ability.

Earlier, I would be told remakes are a business model. Now, I fail to even agree to this concept as remakes are not earning bucks. Also, original con cept has a greater shelf life than remakes. We still watch films by Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee, laugh on watching Bancharamer Bagan and Mohun Baganer Meye and get scared while seeing Hana Bari. Fact is, there is no easy way out in cinema. It's important that we find happiness and also sorrow as that adds to our experi ence. Failure too is as important as success.

Kaushik Ganguly's

Bishorjon

is doing very well and Shiboprosad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy's

Praktan

was a huge success last year. I am not starting a debate on the quality of cinema, but if you have the conviction, tell your own story . Tomorrow, someone might want to have his own take on Psycho or on

Basanta Bilap

, that's perfectly justifiable. As an artiste, it's important what you have to offer to the audience. And in that, originality does matter.