Upala KBR (MID-DAY; November 14, 2018)

Though Bharat is an official adaptation of the South Korean hit, Ode To My Father (2014), it has been learnt that Salman Khan and director Ali Abbas Zafar have tweaked the script to suit the taste of Indian audience.

While they were impressed with the Korean drama, Khan felt that the remake would strike a chord with viewers if they added a more emotional flavour to the narrative.

Before taking his period drama on floors, Zafar submitted the final draft to the makers of the South Korean film — director Yoon Je-kyoon, co-producer Park Ji-seong and writer Park Su-ji — who greenlit the revised script.

Says a source from the creative team, “When Ali started drafting the script, he didn’t want it to be a scene-to-scene adaptation. After discussing with Salman, he decided to increase the emotional quotient in the drama. He also made Katrina’s [Kaif] character meatier as compared to her counterpart in the original.”

Co-producer Nikhil Namit says, “Contrary to speculation, Katrina did not ask for her role to be increased. We had fleshed out the role right from the beginning, even before Priyanka Chopra left the movie. Salman has also given his creative inputs to the script. The Korean team has read the revised version and felt that we have adapted it well.”

Namit adds that running the script by the South Korean team wasn’t part of the contract. “But we thought of getting their feedback.”