When he made Ye Maya Chesave, K Balachandar was bowled over by its classic touch.  Nagarjuna, not surprisingly, fondly remembered Mani Ratnam's Geethanjali.  Such is the feel of that conversational romance track made by Gautham Menon.  However, when he remade the film as Ek Deewana Tha in Hindi, the film not only flopped but also reminded the ace Kollywoodian of the failure of Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein.

What is Gautham's take on it?  The director feels that both RHTDM and EDT flopped mainly because of the heroes.  "I think Madhavan was not apt for the role.  As of Ek Deewana Tha, Prateik Babbar had a rash of flops to his credit.  His presence worked against the film.  Had Ranbir Kapoor acted in it, the film's fate would have been different", the director of Gharshana fame has explained.

The director may or may not be right in feeling that the films flopped mainly because of the wrong choice of male leads, but it is true that Ek Deewana Tha's narrative was painfully slow and smacked of the South Indian flavour.

He is currently making a tri-lingual, and Samantha stars as the female lead in all the three versions.  Only time will tell if Aditya Roy Kapur, the hero of the Hindi version, will bail him out.