“All izz well” has become “Todo bien” in the Mexican remake of Rajkumar Hirani’s 2009 blockbuster 3 Idiots. In the Spanish-language 3 Idiotas, which was released in Mexico on 31 March, Alfonso Dosal, Christian Vazquez, German Valdez and Martha Higareda stepped into the roles played by Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Kareena Kapoor. 3 Idiotas will be released in the United States of America on June 2.
Inspired by Chetan Bhagat’s bestselling novel Five Point Someone, 3 Idiots is a satire about the Indian education system, told through the adventures of the maverick student Rancho (Aamir Khan). The film was remade in Tamil as Nanban in 2012. Shankar’s film starred Vijay, Jiiva, Srikanth and Ileana D’Cruz.
Hirani’s treatment of universal subject matter – examination pressure, rote learning, unimaginative teachers – made it popular not only among Indian viewers but also in China and Japan. The movie was released in China in 2011 and later in Japan in 2013. A Chinese remake backed by Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow was announced by producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra in 2011, but it doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere.
Meanwhile, a dubbed version of Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal, starring Aamir Khan, will be opening in China, proving that Indian films are slowly being accepted on their own terms in overseas territories.