Since almost 10 years, Korean producer Hyunwoo Thomas Kim of Kross Pictures has quietly set up base in Mumbai and has been making some interesting, out-of-the-box Indian films like Te3n (2016), Jaane Jaan (2023), Blind (2023), Saakini Daakini (2022) etc. An article in Mid-Day, by Mayank Shekhar, documented his journey in India and a lot more.
BREAKING: Korean producer Hyunwoo Thomas Kim approaches Akshay Kumar for an exciting project: “Sujoy Ghosh has already worked on its draft”
Hyunwoo Thomas Kim explained how he decided to set up an office in India. He revealed that in 2014, he regularly received emails from a company named ‘Balaji’ and he initially assumed that it was spam! One day, when he opened the mail, he realized that the prominent production house, Balaji Motion Pictures, has been mailing and asking for the rights of The Devotion Of Suspect X for a Hindi remake.
Hyunwoo Thomas Kim wanted to know who would direct the remake. He was told that Sujoy Ghosh has been signed. Hyunwoo saw Sujoy’s Kahaani (2012) and was so impressed that he flew down to Mumbai to meet Sujoy and others. After the meeting, he gave them the remake rights too.
Hyunwoo Thomas Kim said in the Mid-Day interview that he was amazed by Mumbai, as everyone spoke English and hence, it was easy to do business. He started frequenting India more. He remarked, “I figured, India has a huge market, great directors, actors… What it lacks is writers of the calibre in Korea. There was a gap to fill. Initially, people thought I was crazy to spend so much time/money [in Mumbai]. Or that I had a girlfriend in India. I don’t!”
However, The Devotion Of Suspect X was finally remade as Jaane Jaan only in 2023. When asked why it didn’t get made way back in 2014, he replied that Drishyam (2013) had already been released and was inspired by the same story. Hyunwoo Thomas Kim confessed that he wanted to sue the makers of Drishyam, but didn’t as “Ekta Kapoor backed off”.
However, Hyunwoo Thomas Kim won the case against the Kannada hit Pushpaka Vimana (2017), which was a remake of Lee Hwan-kyung’s Miracle In Cell No. 7 (2013), whose rights he holds. The Bombay High Court passed an order restraining the filmmakers of the Kannada movie from awarding any rights in relation to satellite or telecast rights.
Speaking of his forthcoming films, Hyunwoo Thomas Kim revealed that he has approached Akshay Kumar for the remake of a Korean film. He stated, “Just yesterday, I texted Akshay Kumar, who’s in London, asking him to watch a particular film that everyone in the industry knows about. Sujoy [Ghosh] has already worked on the draft. If Akshay agrees, we have a project.”
In the same interview, he also said that he has been received warmly by the Hindi film industry, “I’ve met with everyone, including Shah Rukh Khan, who first messaged me about a script.”
Also Read: SCOOP: Akshay Kumar-Arshad Warsi starrer Jolly LLB 3 is a RARE film to release on two platforms – Netflix and JioHotstar
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