Bollywood Remake Of Korea’s ‘Blind,’ Starring Sonam Kapoor, Starts Glasgow Shoot




Principal photography began on Monday in Glasgow, Scotland, on “Blind,” a Bollywood remake of the eponymous 2011 Korean action thriller.

Sonam Kapoor (“Veere Di Wedding”) headlines the cast, which also includes Purab Kohli (“Sense8”) and Vinay Pathak (“A Suitable Boy”).

“Blind” follows a woman who loses her sight after a car accident, only to find her other senses develop, allowing her to help the police in an ongoing investigation.

The remake is directed by feature debutant Shome Makhija, who has previously worked with filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh (“Kahaani”) as associate director on a number of films, including the Glasgow-set “Badla,” a remake of 2016 Spanish-language thriller “The Invisible Guest,” starring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu.

“Blind” will shoot in a start-to-finish schedule in Glasgow, adhering to COVID-19 protocols. Mainland Scotland went into a Tier 4-level lockdown in recent days, but film and TV production is still allowed to continue as long as guidelines are followed.

The film is a co-production between Kanai, AVMA Media, Rainbow Studios and Kross Pictures.

Korean IP has long been fertile ground for Indian cinema, with the inspiration often leading to unauthorized remakes — that is, at least, until production outfit Kross came into the picture. Headed by Thomas Kim Hyunwoo, a former investment banker and L.A.-based Disney executive, Kross, alongside Endemol Shine India, produced Amitabh Bachchan-vehicle “Te3n” as an authorized remake of 2013 Korean crime drama “Montage” in 2016.

Kross was subsequently involved in “100 Days of Sunshine,” the 2018 Vietnamese remake of 2012 Korean hit “Never Ending Story,” and “Oh! Baby,” the Telugu-language Indian remake of 2014 Korean box office smash “Miss Granny.”

One of the biggest hits from Kross is the Chinese adaptation of Keigo Higashino’s Japanese novel “The Devotion of Suspect X.”

An Indian adaptation of Korean comedy-drama “Miracle in Cell No. 7” is also in the works from Kross.

Earlier this year, another Bollywood film, “Bellbottom,” starring Akshay Kumar, was shot entirely in and around Glasgow.


Sonam kapoor

Production Slowdown, Hybrid Releases, PR Crises: How Mainstream Bollywood Coped With 'the Year From Hell'

Mid-December is usually when Bollywood gears up to end the year with that one last big-budget film with an A-list star cast. Not this year, though, as Bollywood and theatre owners struggle with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis that’s brought the movie business to a virtual standstill. Add to this the massive image hit that the industry took this summer, and it’s possibly been the worst year the industry has faced in decades. 

For Bollywood, 2020 started with a bang thanks to director Om Raut’s historical Tanhaji. With gross earnings of over Rs 300 crores, the historical action drama starring Ajay Devgn, Kajol, and Saif Ali Khan tops the short list of films that released in theatres this year. The only other bonafide profit-maker that released in theatres was Tiger Shroff’s Baaghi 3 but it eventually suffered when the countrywide lockdown came into effect on 24 March. Late actor Irrfan’s Angrezi Medium that released on 13 March was the last film to hit the marquee before the lockdown.



Nine months hence, while theatres have reopened in some states, most filmmakers still prefer to either release straight on OTT or wait for the circumstances to get better. It’s a catch-22 situation, if there’s ever been one. Covid-related restrictions have meant that theatres are only allowed to function at 50% capacity but that’s not the ideal scenario for big films like Salman Khan’s Radhe or Kabir Khan’s ‘83 to release.

“Big budget films can’t really recover their monies if theatres aren’t operating at full capacity. On the flipside, while theatres have been open since Diwali in a lot of the states, the audiences haven’t really returned. The general feeling is that only the lure of big Hindi film will get people back to theatres,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh.  

Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi and ’83 are among the films that the industry is banking on to bring some cheer. Both films were ready to release when the lockdown came into effect but Shibashish Sarkar, the Group CEO of Reliance Entertainment, distributor of these films, isn’t ready to commit to a release date as yet.

“We have announced multiple dates since the lockdown so we aren’t in a hurry to mention any dates as yet but we will be looking at the first quarter of 2021. We expect the first five or six months of theatres re-opening to be slow. It’s going to take some time to get the audience back,” says Sarkar. Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, Ajay Devgn’s Maidaan and Akshay Kumar’s Bellbottom and Bachchan Pandey are the other big releases that are already slotted for 2021.

Also watch: Abhishek Bachchan opens up about how the year 2020 was for him (Video by The Times of India)

Production slowdown

The long pause due to COVID this year has delayed films by a minimum of six to seven months. The first Hindi film shot and completed during the pandemic was Bellbottom. The cast and crew flew to the UK in August and principal shooting was completed by 30 September. Apart from a 24*7 paramedic on set, regular temperature and oxygen level checks and social distancing, new shooting protocols meant that the cast and crew were tested once every week during the shoot in Glasgow. “We had a separate cook for the team and even the local team stayed at a hotel instead of their homes,” says producer Jackky Bhagnani.

Since the lockdown restrictions were lifted in different parts of the country, actors have returned to sets. Ajay Devgn is shooting for Bhuj: The Pride of India and Mayday in Hyderabad. In the last few months, Chandigarh has played host to the cast and crews of Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey, director Abhishek Kapoor’s Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Vaani Kapoor and Dharma Production’s Varun Dhawan starrer Jug Jugg Jeeyo. Shah Rukh Khan has started shooting for Pathan in Mumbai; Aamir Khan flew to Turkey to shoot for Laal Singh Chaddha while Salman Khan wrapped up Radhe. 


While many actors used the forced hiatus to continue prepping for their films, those who had to be in peak physical condition for their forthcoming projects found it tough to maintain their regime through the lockdown. When the pandemic struck, Taapsee Pannu was weeks away from filming Rashmi Rocket where she plays an athlete. She had spent two months prepping to look the part of a runner. “I lost all the muscle volume I had built over two months because I had no weights at home and there was obviously no access to a gym. To maintain my stamina, I started working out twice a day at home. I would use a mat and furniture at home and in the evenings, I’d either climb 45 floors of my building or run two kilometres nonstop in our parking lot,” shared Taapsee, who is currently shooting for the film in the outskirts of Pune. 

Bleak months

Trade analysts put the overall loss to the Hindi movie business anywhere between Rs 5000 crores and Rs 9000 crores depending on who one speaks to, but in all of this it’s important to remember those who have been the hardest hit – the daily wage workers, junior artists and the single screen owners.