The 2023 Telugu film Baby, directed by Sai Rajesh Neelam, broke all box office records. A quirky love story featuring semi-newcomers, Baby made at an estimated budget of Rs. 15 crores. It has so far made almost Rs. 100 crores at the box office, making it one of the biggest small-budget money-spinners of all times.
And now, Baby is on the verge of being remade in Hindi. When this writer contacted the film’s producer Sreenivasa Kumar Naidu, known in the Telugu industry as SKN, he was over the moon. He said, “Yes sir, Baby is going to be remade into Hindi. Not only Hindi, but also Tamil. In both languages, the star cast will be fresh, if not newcomers, then semi-newcomers. The USP of Baby was the underexposed cast. Both Anand Deverakonda and Vaishnavi Chaitanya were relatively unknown faces. They had done films before. But Anand was known as Vijay Deverakonda’s brother and Vaishnavi’s work was unrecognized. We want unexposed faces in Hindi remake, although let me tell you, some of the biggest star-children in Bollywood want to do the Hindi remake of Baby.”
SKN has been approached by some of the biggest producers in Filmistan for the remake rights. Laughed SKN “That’s right, sir. You will be surprised at the names that are interested in our small film, which nobody expected to turn so big. So far, the box office collections of Baby are Rs. 96 crores. It is all destiny, sir. Baby breaking records is a miracle.”
Blitzed by remake requests, SKN has already zeroed in on the Hindi producer he will give the remake rights to. “It’s not about the money only. It is also about putting my ‘Baby’ in safe hands. The producer who is doing the Hindi remake of Baby has a solid track record of credible projects. I am a hundred percent confident he will do full justice to Baby. I am sorry we are not ready to disclose the producer’s name as yet,” he said.