Saif, Ranbir, Imran, Neil in 'The Italian Job' rem

By Subhash K Jha

With American studios maintaining a hawk-eyed gaze over copyright infringement in Bollywood desi filmmakers are growing copyright savvy and looking for new ways of evading the floodlights.

Now Abbas-Mustan claim that their Italian Job won't just be a remake of the the 2003 con caper directed by F Gary Gray but a "mix n match" version of both the 2003 film and the earlier 1669 film directed by Peter Collinson from which the 2003 film was remade.

Explains Abbas, "Our producer Studio 18 have bought the rights of both the 1969 Michael Caine film and the 2003 film. We're doing a mix n match job of Italian Job. We're taking whatever elements we like from the two Hollywood films and putting them together in our own way."

In the past Abbas-Mustan have outright lifted Hollywood films like Consenting Adults (Kati Patang) like Disclosure (Aetraaz) and put them together without radical changes.

"But this time we aren't doing that, " says Abbas currently scripting the Italy-dosa. "We want to turn the Italian Job into a total desi film."

The vast cast is yet to be decided. But it's reliably learnt that the director plans to cast Saif Al Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan, Shahid Kapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh, among others.