Director Jayathirtha: Akshay Kumar's Bell Bottom is similar to our Kannada film

“Get ready to go back to the 80s and hop onto a roller-coaster spy ride. Bell Bottom releasing on January 22, 2021,”  tweeted Akshay Kumar along with the first-look poster of the Hindi film. This has created quite a stir in the Kannada film industry as it is the title of a film released in Kannada earlier this year.

Directed by Jayathirtha, Bell Bottom had Rishab Shetty playing a detective named Diwakar. It turned out to be one of the successful ventures of 2019. Inspired by real robberies, the film was set in the 1980s and co-starred Hariprriya. Ethake bogase thumba aase needuve, a hit song from the film is still gaining a lot of views on YouTube. 

The Hindi film, directed by Ranjit M Tewari, who is collaborating with Vashu Bhagnani, is said to be a thriller revolving around one of India’s forgotten heroes.

Akshay’s tweet on Bell Bottom led to a lot of speculation among the Kannada audience. And a clarification was issued by the Bollywood actor hero himself, who said, “Bell Bottom is not a remake of any film, it is an original screenplay inspired by true events.” 

Director Jayathirtha, however, disagrees. “The character played by Akshay is that of a detective. The film is titled Bell Bottom and it is set in 1980s. These are all similar to our movie. All of this goes on to show that they have taken the same ingredients and are making a different product,” he says.

A company named K&N has bought the Telugu and Hindi remake rights of Bell Bottom, and Jayathirtha feels that Akshay’s film may affect these producers, who were planning to remake the film in Hindi. “This might also become a roadblock for the Bell Bottom sequel, which we plan to launch next year,” he adds.

Jayathirta points out that there was an official Hindi remake of Ondu Motteyya Kathe, which was called Udta Chaman, but Ayushmann Khuranna's latest film Bala, which was also on the same lines as the Kannada film turned out to be a hit. “Bala came with a big star, had better promotions, and it made the news,” says Jayathirtha, adding, “If Bell Bottom is similar to our film, we only request a line of credit for the creativity, and nothing more.”