Bollywood is set to remake a classic Hollywood film series, of course there have been a few in the past, but this one looks set to be the most ambitious so far. The remake is of Back to the Future and will be called Action Replay starring two big stars, Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai.

Kumar and Rai are planning to take the roles of Michael J. Fox and Leah Thompson respectively, and while this is a Bollywood film there's a chance that it might get general recognition.

The idea of Bollywood remaking such a loved classic isn't so upsetting as Hollywood doing it because at least we'd see something new and interesting from the story. However the question is will it appeal to western audiences outside of Bollywood cinema?

There's a possibility. Although there's no word in the story in the Real Bollywood News story (I tracked down the link myself) through Digital Spy on whether there are plans for a general release, Aishwarya Rai is already known to western audiences for her role in the crossover film Bride & Prejudice (I shan't mention her upcoming appearance in The Pink Panther 2), so perhaps there are plans to do something similar?

My gut instinct is that they won't attempt a crossover and this will be a straight Bollywood remake, after all there's so much love for the original series I can't see western audiences accepting a remake from any quarter, no matter how different and innovative it is.

A big question remains though, how similar is Action Replay going to be to the original Back to the Future? The story says it's "based on", and that's what the western media are picking up on as being a remake, it could be very different.