The badlands of Ramgarh will boom again with Gabbar Singh’s loud talk and Basanti’s non-stop chatters. Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) has bagged a $100-million franchisee deal to remake the 70s masterpiece Sholay, which ran in movie theatres for five-and-a-half years without interruption, making it the most successful film in India’s cinematic history.

The move comes at a time when Ram Gopal Varma’s controversial movie, Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, said to be an unofficial remake of Sholay, is set to release this weekend with 700 prints.

Production house PNC has entered into an agreement with Sippys-owned Sholay Media and Entertainment — the original maker of Sholay — to remake the blockbuster, make an animated version of the movie and also its prequel and sequel. Sholay Media & Entertainment, headed by Sascha Vijay Sippy, holds the official franchisee rights of Sholay, produced in 1975 by his grandfather GP Sippy and directed by his uncle Ramesh Sippy.

PNC chairman Pritish Nandy confirmed that he has signed an agreement to remake the film. “We have entered into an agreement with the official franchisee-rights holder of Sholay to develop the franchisee of the most successful film ever made in Bollywood. Besides making the official remake of the movie, we will make a prequel and a sequel of the movie, as well as the animated version of it,” he said.

Mr Nandy added that PNC would have a revenue-sharing arrangement with Sholay Entertainment & Media instead of the licensing fee model. “The $100 million would cover all four projects. The official rights holders want to have a say in how the film should be treated in its new avatar and we have no problems with it.” The cast, crew and the distribution of the film would be worked out in the due course.

PNC will first start work on the production of the animated version of the movie mid-September. The ‘official’ remake of Sholay will also start in 2007-end. Mr Nandy added that the details are still being worked out.

Sholay Media & Entertainment and Sippy Films had filed a lawsuit last year to permanently restrain Mr Varma from releasing the controversial film, originally named Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay.

It maintained that the use of the name Sholay by any other entity amounts to infringement of the trade mark and copyright. However, the Delhi High Court gave the green signal to Mr Varma after he said he would not use the title Sholay and names of the popular characters Gabbar Singh and Basanti.

Subsequently, Mr Varma changed the name of the film to Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, and the characters are no longer called Gabbar Singh and Basanti. The Sippys had been in the past approached by several producers to remake Sholay, but they were all turned down.