'Gabbar is Back' rode on the success of its Tamil and Telugu versions

An idea whose time came full 13 years after it was originally explored and exploited commercially in the southern film industry, the 2015 film 'Gabbar is Back' aptly fitted the phrase. The 2002 release 'Ramana' helmed by A R Murugadoss was his second Tamil film after the debut with Ajith Kumar in 'Dheena', a year ago.

An idealistic film about a college professor who endeavours to wipe out corruption from society with a dedicated band of ex-students, the film travelled to Telugu where it got remade as 'Tagore'. It was also among the first five films for its director, V V Vinayak who whipped a successful concoction with the megastar Chiranjeevi, facing a challenging time at the BO during that phase in 2003.

In 2015, Akshay Kumar was still going very strong at the box-office and he had completed nearly 25 years in the industry by then. With the svelte Shruti Haasan for company, the venture which was jointly produced by Viacom 18 and Sanjay Leela Bhansali went on to complete a successful run. Like as it is usually done, the other film industries like Kannada and Bengali film industries had already picked up the film for its local language remake and minted money.

There were veterans like Vishnuvardhan in Kannada and Mithun Chakraborty in Bengali to lend their weight to the flicks produced. It even travelled abroad to neighbouring country, Bangladesh, where it was unofficially rehashed. In the same year, the actor had another engrossing film 'Baby', an unexpected hit of a spy thriller which captured the audience interest like no one else.

Made on a budget of Rs 75 crore approx., the film touched the three-figure mark and gladdened the producers considerably. A common point the film shared with the other language versions was that, by and large, the critics and the common man both were appreciative of the film.

As corruption had been a major issue in the first half of the second decade of this millennium, the socio-political impact too may have played a part in its gaining traction among the public, feel cine observers. A critic went on to describe Akshay Kumar's role thus: ' Akshay gives the Super Hero a new definition'.