An era marked by remakes, Victoria No 203 may not strike you as a film in anyway different from its counterparts. The premise in this case, however, was not to recreate magic, explains Kamal Sadanah, the producer of the gen next Victoria No 203, in town to promote the film, along with leading lady, Sonia Mehra. “We have been subjected to quite a lot of criticism on this subject. Our motive was not to recreate magic, entertainment being the only end. And that is exactly what we have done considering the response that we have been receiving from the audience. They reveal that it is a ‘time pass movie’,” says Sadanah, exuding uncanny optimism.

“The sequence is different from the original, supplemented with myriad special effects, the attempt to keep the flick as polished and light as possible is quite overt,” explains Sadanah. Commercialism however, has been kept at bay and one can see several instances that support this assertion. “The original music was by Kalyanji-Anandji and this time it is by Viju Shah. Do Bichare was sung by Kishore Kumar and its newer version is by his son, Amit Kumar. We were supported by those who were involved in the original, a factor that has instilled confidence in the film that I have produced, in spite of the flak,” he expresses.

And Sonia Mehra, late actor Vinod Mehra’s daughter, seems just as confident about her debut film. “It was an honour to be playing Saira Banu’s character and I was not nervous in the least. The only hitch was my Hindi. I overcame that with help, though,” beams Mehra.

The actress had to watch the original version several times to absorb Banu’s character. “My aim was never to imitate her because that would be almost impossible, considering her immaculate perfection,” Mehra claims. As for Sadanah, he would never walk through the remake domain again. “Once is all. I am a propagator of independent cinema, much of this inclination comes from the interaction that I have had with filmmakers from Europe, U.S and even Iraq. I would love to do something in that direction,” he reveals.