'VikramVedha' remake has Hrithik, Saif Ali in cop vs criminal tale

A star combo of Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan to star in a reprisal of a hit Tamil movie is by itself a unique highlight. Added to this is the unusual and one of its kind pairing of a husband and wife directorial team – Pushkar- Gayathri -to helm the flick. These are two USPs of a remake of 'VikramVedha', the 2017 super hit in Tamil, starring Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi.

After the initial clubbing of Aamir Khan and Saif Ali fell through because of professional issues, Aamir Khan dropped out in November 2020, and was replaced by Hrithik Roshan. Frankly, it is very difficult to say who has the bigger, better role and screen time in this film among the two, inspired by the Indian folktale BaitalPachisi.

As Wikipedia writes: 'The film tells the story of Vikram (Madhavan), a police inspector who sets out to track down and kill Vedha (Sethupathi), a gangster. After Vedha voluntarily surrenders himself, he tells Vikram three stories which change his perceptions of good and evil'.

As it adds: 'The director duo initially considered setting the film either in politics, business or journalism before finally deciding on a police-gangster background. The Indian folktale BaitalPachisi inspired the development of the story. The ghost-like being Vetala who posed morally ambiguous questions to King Vikramaditya, each of which could result in more than one answer, attracted them. The film's title and its characterisation of Vikram (Vikramaditya) and Vedha (Vetala) were also derived from the tale'

Shot over a period of 53 days in 2016 after extensive pre-production, the film's budget stood at around Rs 11 crore. The director duo had by then come up with two films since 2007, both of them giving steady returns to the producers. As the content gripped the attention of the audience and gained their support in an impressive manner, the film scored well at the BO, bringing in a gross return of around Rs 60 crore. It also earned the distinction of having been the second-largest successful film after 'Baahubali2 : the conclusion' in 2017.

As far as awards go, it went on to bag many regional ones like Vikatan TV Awards and many European ones. The entire star cast was nominated for various categories of awards and were appreciated all over for their fantastic performances.