Kamal Sadanah, actor-turned-producer on his ambitious production, remaking his father Brij Sadanah's superhit 70s film, Victoria No. 203.

What prompted you to remake your father's 1972 hit Victoria No. 203 now after 35 years?

It was my inherent desire to remake Victoria No. 203 because it has a tremendous remake potential owing to its fast-paced, character-based and not star-driven script. Furthermore, it is a comedy. These are exciting times when the audience is open to new experiments. The time was just right to take the plunge!

Since it is your home-production, there was no question of acquiring remake rights. But did you consult the surviving cast and crew members before relaunching the film?

Even before we started scripting, I sought the blessings of all those who were associated with the original. Pransahab and Navin Nischol from the original cast even graced the launch. The original music was scored by Kalyanji-Anandji so I thought as their successor I had to approach Viju Shah. I even have Amit Kumar to sing Do Bechare... since it was originally sung by his dad Kishore Kumar.

To what extent have you recreated your Victoria?

We aren't veering away from the original premise, we will only be changing the packaging, sequencing and some characters like that of villain Anwar Hussain's - he will be a nefarious businessman played by Javed Jaffrey. While the rest of the characters remain more or less the same, the players are different, with Om Puri for Pran, Anupam Kher for Ashok Kumar, Jimmy Shergill for Navin Nischol, and Vinod Mehra?s daughter Soniya Mehra for Saira Banu, who makes her debut in our film. With the director, Ananth Mahadevan, I vibed well right from our first meeting. He has a great comic timing as a maker and he could also understand my vision of the remake. It was a meeting of the minds.

From where did you procure the Victoria for the shoot?

We built a special single horse-driven Victoria. Manish Benani, the art director of Don built the buggy for us. It was warm and cozy as opposed to the corporate milieu the film is set in as it must mass-connect. We gave it technical finishing touches like attaching springs for loading the camera sans jerks.

How many times have you seen the original and which is your favourite scene from the film?

I was only one when the film was released. But since then I have watched it over a thousand times. I love the introductory scene where Pransahab and Dadamoni are coming out of the jail and I also enjoy the scene where both of them are chucked into the ocean by the villain and then both of them untie each other - it is such a fabulously improvised scene.

Being the producer, aren't you casting yourself in the film?

Of late I have been getting a lot of offers to play negative roles so I decided to play the negative role in my own film. I play Ranji. I just love being around the camera in any capacity.

Have you ridden the Victoria yourself?

(Chuckles) Not in recent times but very often as a teenager to impress my dates!

Old-timers are of the opinion that classics should remain on the pedestal, what is your take on that?

My intention in remaking Victoria is to recreate that magic and fun, and bring today?s generation the same classic film and characters but in a revised format. We have succeeded in meeting the challenge and doing a fun and entertaining remake.