BHUBANESWAR: In what would mark a major milestone for Odia movie industry, ‘Bou Buttu Bhuta’, the biggest blockbuster of 2025, will be remade in pan-India languages including Hindi by leading Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. The remake will also be released internationally.
Johar’s production house on Monday issued a public notice stating that it is in the process of acquiring the remake rights of ‘Bou Buttu Bhuta’ from Babushaan Films Pvt Ltd. It will have the rights to dub and subtitle the film, but Babushaan Film Pvt Ltd will remain the sole, absolute and lawful owner of all the intellectual property rights.
Directed by Jagdish Mishra and starring Aparajita, Babushaan and Archita in lead roles, the horror-comedy was made with a budget of Rs 2 crore to Rs 3 crore and turned out to be one of the biggest hits of the industry, earning a box office revenue of nearly Rs 21 crore. The film was released during Raja in June this year and ran in the theatres for close to 50 days.
Babushaan said his production house was in talks with Dharma Productions for close to two months for acquisition of production rights of the film. “It is good news not just for us but the entire Odia film industry which had hit a low in the recent years.
This collaboration will open a new door for Ollywood and the new and young filmmakers of the state. It will provide the industry a scope to expand not just creatively but also commercially,” he said. Babushaan, however, will not be featuring in the remake.
‘Bou Buttu Bhuta’ is the second film whose remake rights are being acquired by a Bollywood-based production house. The first Odia film to be remade in Hindi was ‘Shesha Shrabana’ (1976), which was adapted as Hindi film ‘Naiyya’ in 1979. The remake was directed by the original film’s director Prashant Nanda, and achieved significant box office success and critical acclaim.
Last year, ace actor Anupam Kher had announced plans to remake Anupam Pattnaik’s ‘Pratikhya’ at the 55th International Film Festival of India. Another Babushaan blockbuster ‘Daman’ was dubbed and released in Hindi in 2023 by its original makers. “This is the second time, remake rights of an Odia film is being officially acquired by a Bollywood production house,” said film historian Surya Deo.
The film had also broken all the previous day-1 box office collection records in Odia cinema. Another first in the industry was the midnight release of ‘Bou Buttu Bhuta’. The film released on the midnight of June 12 and earned Rs 51.2 lakh on the first day, breaking the box office record of Anubhav Mohanty whose film ‘Karma’ had earned Rs 37.20 lakh on its first day in Dussehra last year.