One of the main reasons behind the success of David Dhawan’s Coolie No 1 (1995) was Rumi Jafry’s screenplay. The film starred Govinda, Karisma Kapoor, Kader Khan and Sadashiv Amrapurkar in pivotal roles. Interestingly, Jafry has also written the screenplay for the remake of Coolie No 1, which is also directed by Dhawan. The film will see Varun Dhawan essay the character of a coolie.
Jafry tells us that writing the remake was a daunting task. “It was very stressful. It would have been a different matter if the original film hadn’t received appreciation and box office success. But this film is a classic. So if you have to re-write your own film, then it becomes all the more challenging,” he said in an exclusive conversation with Cinestaan.com.
Jafry is aware of the public scrutiny the remake will be subjected to once it is released. “People might give all kinds of reactions. Plus, the remake always gets compared to the original. So there was more hard work in this film than in the original,” said the writer-director.
But he added that their team is confident including, Varun Dhawan who will be essaying the role played by Govinda in the first film. “Varun is such a big star. Else he wouldn’t have taken such a risk. He knows what he was getting into. He did Judwaa 2 (2017) which became a super-hit. Over here also he has given a superb performance,” Jafry said.
The remake of Coolie No. 1 also stars Sara Ali Khan, Paresh Rawal, Jaaved Jaaferi and Shikha Talsania.