Haiwaan audience turns to Oppam to compare Priyadarshan’s original with remake

(L-R) Stills from ‘Haiwaan’ and ‘Oppam’. Pics/Youtube, Yogen Shah

There is significant interest around Haiwaan, filmmaker Priyadarshan's thriller that released yesterday. Not surprisingly, the Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan-starrer has also generated curiosity around Oppam (2016), the director's Malayalam movie on which the Hindi thriller is based. A Hindi dubbed version of the Mohanlal-led movie, which has been available on YouTube for the past four years under the title Prime Witnesses, has reportedly crossed 4.5 lakh views in the past three days.

Priyadarshan

With the movie's fans sharing its YouTube link across X and Instagram, a trade source said that users are lapping it up to compare Haiwaan and its original. "There is curiosity around the original because Haiwaan has released. The audience doesn't want to simply watch a remake; they want to watch the source material and compare the two films. The remake has effectively created a new audience for the original," said the source.

What makes the development interesting is that Oppam is already available on JioHotstar, but it has neither a Hindi dubbed version nor subtitles. The source added, "The Hindi-speaking audience isn't being served there. YouTube has solved that accessibility problem."

What's ‘Oppam' about?

In the 2016 film, Mohanlal plays a blind lift operator who becomes embroiled in a murder conspiracy. The Hindi film reimagines that premise with Saif Ali Khan stepping into Mohanlal's role and Akshay Kumar portraying the antagonist