Hrithik in VishalBharadwaj's 'The Departed' remake

Bollywood continues to plagiarize and ravage Hollywood movies, even if they themselves are copies of other foreign films.

The latest buzz is that Hrithik Roshan has been signed on for the Bollywood remake of the ensemble gangster drama 'The Departed' to be directed by Vishal Bharadwaj. Hrithik will play Leonardo DiCaprio's character, an undercover cop infiltrating the gang of biggest crime lord in the city. Abhishek Bachchan, Neil Nithin Mukesh and Saif Ali Khan are in negotiations to play Matt Damon's character, the police officer who is actually the crime lord's mole in the department, leaking sensitive details to the gangsters. When both sides of the law realize the situation, each man attempts to discover the other's true identity before being found out.

In case you didn't already know, 'The Departed' was itself a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film 'Infernal Affairs', with Andy Lau as the informant and Tony Leung as the undercover cop infiltrating the gang of the criminal overlord Eric Tsang. Infernal Affairs still remains the highest grossing movie of all time in Hong Kong.

Hrithik will focus on the yet-untitled remake as soon as he finishes with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's melodrama 'Guzaarish' with Aishwarya Rai. Confirming the story a daily quoted a source as saying, "Vishal has got Hrithik's dates from June after the actor finishes shooting for Sanjay Bhansali's 'Guzaarish'. So far only he has been cast. He plays Leo's role and so he will have to hone his martial arts skills and gun-totting abilities by taking special classes from professionals."

But the bigger news here is that Vishal Bharadwaj is keen on directing the remake. Why would the 'Kaminey' director resort to scene by scene rehashes of Hollywood movies? If there is one Bollywood filmmaker who doles out reassuringly original flicks, it is Bharadwaj. His 'Maqbool' and 'Omkara' might have been inspired from the Shakespeare plays but at least they weren't direct lifts of commercial Hollywood. Priyanka Chopra had stated that she has signed on for Bharadwaj's new film, will she play the role of the psychiatrist who has affairs with both DiCaprio and Matt Damon's characters?

While 'The Departed' was set in Boston, Bharadwaj plans to base the film in Mumbai. Who do you think ought to play Jack Nicholson's character? Amitabh Bachchan? Or how about Amol Gupte, who was unforgettable as Bhope Bahu in 'Kaminey'? And its been a while since Naseeruddin Shah played a nasty criminal.