Bollywood Mysteries
Many say that the word ‘Bollywood’ is a cheap imitation of Hollywood and thus we should avoid using the word. I have consciously and specifically chosen the word ‘Bollywood’ in the title of my post as this post is about cheap imitations of the west. A lot has been said about blatant plagiarism and dvd remakes thriving in Indian cinema and hence will not waste time upon stating the obvious. What can be of great interest though is tracing the roots of plagiarism in Hindi films and trying to get an insight on a practice which in it’s ultimate analysis is a crime. Being madly in love with films and having keen interest in the entire ’stealing’ business, I have made a documentary titled ‘Four Step Plan’ along with two of my friends which critiques the trends of plagiarism in our films. Adopting a sarcastic approach, the documentary proposes a defense mechanism to all the ‘copycats’ which will help plagiarism flourish in the country. Along with featuring some of the recent ‘inspired’ films which were both critically and commercially applauded , the documentary traces ‘inspirations’ and ‘adaptations’ in hindi cinema right from the time cinema was in black and white. An insider’s account is provided on the issue by film directors and screenwriters like Prawal Raman, Ajum Rajabali, Kamlesh Pandey, Vijay Tendulkar, Aatish Kapadia , Ashok Pandit and others who analyse the situation with an objective view.
All PFC bloggers based in aamchi Mumbai are invited for a screening of the documentary as I am sure many would be interested, given the subject. The screening is to be held on 23rd December,2006 at the Jitendra Chauhan college of law and will start at 6.30 in the evening. The screening has been arranged by J.C.college for law students as the documentary covers an area relevant to their study which is violation of intellectual property rights. The principal of the college has kindly complied with our request to invite a few guests of our own which includes members of PFC. Entry is free of course and punctuality will be appreciated. The duration of the film is one hour.
Here’s a preview clip of Four Step Plan :
But the post doesn’t end here. I have a LOT more to say. Instead of posting two separate posts, I am clubbing all into one since it’s about the same topic. Coming back to bollywood mysteries, while researching for our film, I realized that there are certain films which are much more complicated than simply being remade. Here are a few examples :
1)Plot outline of the German musical ‘Beyond Silence’ :
Since the earliest days in her childhood Lara has had a difficult but important task. Both her parents are deaf-mute and Lara has to translate from sign-language to the spoken word and vice versa when her parents want to communicate with other people. Getting older and more mature she becomes interested in music and starts to play clarinet very successfully. However her parents are deaf, they cannot share Lara’s musical career. The day comes when Lara has to decide between her parents and her own ambitions.
Somewhat Similiar to ‘khamoshi :The musical’?
Well, the amusing part of it all is that Beyond Silence released on 19 December 1996 and Khamoshi released on 9 August 1996! Two films, with some obvious similarities along with being musicals release in the same year in two different countries? I am all for co-incidence!
2)Plot outline of the akshay kumar starrer and Suneel darshan directed ‘Jaanwar’ released in 1999:
Orphaned when his mother dies of hunger, Bapu is corrupted by Sultan, an ambitious criminal mastermind. He grows up to become “Badshah”, a violent career criminal. A chance encounter with a lost child causes him to re-evaluate his life and he becomes an honest blacksmith and loving father. However, he cannot escape his past so easily and he finds himself pursued by a number of people including the dogged Inspector Pradhan; Sapna the girl he jilted; his former criminal associates as well as the child’s real parents.
Plot outline of the oscar winnning film ‘Tsotsi’ released in 2005 :
about a township thug and criminal(Tsotsi) who shoots a woman and ends up taking care of her baby boy.Tsotsi starts finding a change in himself because of the baby and redemption occurs.
Trivia: Jaanwar ,the film-maker claims to be a remake of a hindi film made in 1960s which itself was based on a novel(written in 1950s) by a hindi author ..Tsotsi is also based on a african (!) novel written in the 1940s. In fact, it was our very own Anurag Kashyap who called up Suneel Darshan to inform him about Tsotsi after watching it at an international film festival.
3)Plot outline of ‘Sommersby’ released in 1993 :Set in the south of the United States just after the Civil War, Laurel Sommersby is just managing to work the farm without her husband Jack, believed killed in the Civil War. By all accounts, Jack Sommersby was not a pleasant man, thus when he returns, Laurel has mixed emotions. It appears that Jack has changed a great deal, leading some people to believe that this is not actually Jack but an imposter. Laurel herself is unsure, but willing to take the man into her home, and perhaps later into her heart…
Sounds similiar to Paheli?? Paheli was a remake of duvidha released in 1973…Sommersby was also a remake of Retour de Martin Guerre, Le released in 1982…We win!Don’t we? And anyways,duvidha was also based on a short story written by vijaydhan detha…
BUT the funny part is,Retour de Martin Guerre, Le is based on a short novel by janet lewis called ‘The Wife of Martin Guerre’ published in 1914..Did vijaydhan detha write his story before 1914? Or was paheli a folk story doing the rounds of rajasthan for over centuries?
I hope some cinema fanatic reading this post will clear out these mysteries and shed more light on our lifting escapades. Also, apologies for writing such a long debut post.
Tags: Documentary, Gallery, Video
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Chaitanya your documentary seems extremely interesting. Please submit your film to the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. I am currently in the process of reviewing submissions right now and the deadline shuts on Jan 9th. My team and I would love to have a look at the film. All the information you need to submit is available here: http://www.indianfilmfestival.org/submissions.html
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at vijay@indianfilmfestival.org
- Chaitanya… DAMN AMAZING DOCUMENTARY – atleast the 6 odd minutes of what I saw!!!… Yes would love to see you submit it at IFFLA and t!’s SoCal Independent Movie Festival…
Damn Chaitanya..this looks amazing and a verry verry different and honest project. Yes lease do send it to IFFLA and also So Cal film festival. Man you made my evening…Congrtas mate..
Delightful post chaitanya …
Welcome to PFC (and pls update ur profile) :-)
Can I play devils advocate and not clear up the mystery?
It is one thing to completely lift the plot of a movie and present it as original, but I think there is also a lot to be said for some themes being universal, and the fact that they show up in multiple movies does not make a remake (or plagarism), but the fact that certain themes become part of the universal consciousness and get made in different countries – either at the same time or years apart. This isn’t to discount those that do steal or “remake”, but I think that sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence.
If these movies were outright remakes, wouldn’t it be well-known fact?
That said, I think America wins in the first example you gave. I can think of two made-for-tv movies in the 70s that dealt with the same plot, one starring Paul Sorvino, if I am not mistaken. If this were Passion for TV, we could write a post about the Networks plagarizing each other for ratings!
Don’t apologize for the length of your post, it is a great one. Also, since I start my holiday in two days, I will probably spend some time researching your questions as I am now curious….
And, I don’t want to step on Vijay’s toes, but yes, I do programming for the SoCal Independent Film Festival and we just opened our call for entries. You can see submission guidelines and get information at http://socalfilmfest.com, or contact me at trasies at socalfilmfest.com. We screened an Indian documentary two years ago that was a hit, and are very interested in both international and student films.
yutube is having issues right now (they are going down for maintenance), but what I saw of your film is great…..
just saw the video !!! Damn I’m kicked about the documentary viewing on saturday…pls pls send it to the festivals.
P.S : the pulp fiction soundtrack in the background was a treat !!!
Oz,Kartik and Om: Thanks for the apreciation. Hope that you will watch the entire film soon and then decide ki ’sirf trailer hi accha tha ya film mein bhi kuch dum hai.’
Vijay and t: Have mailed you regarding the film festival complications.
Chaitanya,
Interesting documentry, look forward to seeing more on this.
Bombastic start on PFC, Chaitanya!
BREAKING NEWS – the mumbai police is looking desperately for mahesh ‘copycat’ bhatt & sanjay ‘dvd’ gupta…if caught their punishment will be to watch their own films in jail for the rest of thier lives!! ha! ha!
good post chaitanya tamhane…will add some more “originality is about concealing your sources” filmmakers : –
1)vikram bhatt – kasoor – jagged edge.
vikram bhatt – raaz – what lies beneath.
vikram bhatt – aetbaar – fear.
vikram bhatt – footpath – state of grace.
vikram bhatt – awara pagal deewana – the whole nine yards.
vikram bhatt – deewane huey pagal – there’s something about mary.
vikram bhatt – fareb – unlawful entry.
& many more to his credit…
2)sanjay gupta – kaante – resovoir dogs/the usual suspects/heat.
sanjay gupta – musafir – u-turn.
sanjay gupta – zinda – oldboy.
sanjay gupta – jung – desperate measures.
*anurag kashyap wrote jung!!why??good money??
sanjay gupta/hriday shetty – plan – crime spree
& many more to his credit…
coming soon…
3)vivek agrawal/arjun rampal – i see you – just like heaven.
in the making…
4)sriram raghvan – happy birthday – true romance.
And is Bhansali’s next…Saanwariya…..something like Walk on the wild side ??? Miracle worker at work again ?:-?:-w
Lovely selection of film clips (it’s time to begin collecting cha.ndaa for the Sanjay Gupta Temple of Ideas).
Such a coincidence! I watched IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE only last weekend and almost fell out of my seat on hearing the film’s key theme (Shigeru Umebayashi’s theme from YUMEJI) playing. And then when Misirlou started off, I couldn’t help think about the connection between Wong Kar-Wai and Tarantino (the latter promoted “Chungking Express” and got a US DVD release for it on his label). Coincidence:)
Ricky,
I haven’t seen “Crime Spree”, but “Plan” seemed well in compliance with the standard Sanjay Gupta approach of multiplexing several inspirations into an incoherent whole: the first half blandly filched from “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and the second half from “Suicide Kings”
hi george thomas…you are right about “plan” being filched from “suicide kings”…an error on my part…will post some more COPYCATS very soon…
Oz, chaitanya and PFC members, did you know that once upon a time vikram bhatt, tanuja chandra, pooja bhatt and mohit suri were batchmates at a filmmaking course…all four regularly attended the MAHESH BHATT FILMMAKING SCHOOL…they all passed the “test” with flying colours…”bhatt” naturally…after all mahesh was their father, uncle, mentor, etc…Their favourite subject was “CUT – PASTE – COPY”!! And MR.MAHESH BHATT would always end the class with his favourite line “guys, originality is all about concealing your sources!!” isn’t that a superb back story to their present filmmaking job?? By the way, you can still read or hear maheshji’s four “prodigy” students say his favourite line in their articles/interviews time and again…now the important question is – will BHATT & CO ever make an original film? Will they ever?? NEVER!!!!
Here are some more COPYCATS for the day –
1. mahesh bhatt “saab” – sadak(taxi driver), criminal(the fugitive), gumrah (Bangkok Hilton)
2. pooja bhatt(producer & director) – jism(body heat/double indemnity), paap(witness), holiday (dirty dancing)
3. mohit suri – zeher(out of law), kalyug (8MM)
4. anurag basu – saaya(dragonfly), murder(unfaithful)
5. harry baweja – qayamat(the rock), main aisa hi hoon(I am sam)
* anurag kashyap wrote the dialogues for main aisa hi hoon…hmmm…
6. aneez bazmee – deewangee(primal fear)
7. ashutosh gowariker – pehla nasha(body double)
8. ram gopal varma – bhoot(inner senses)
9. abbas-mustan – baazigar(a kiss before dying), aitraaz(disclosure), ajnabee(consenting adults), humraaz (a perfect murder), daraar(sleeping with the enemy)
* sleeping with the enemy was also raped by rakesh roshan(karobaar) and david
dhawan(yaraana)
10. david dhawan – bade miyan chote miyan(bad boys)
coming soon/in the making…
david dhawan – partner(the hitch)
ahmed khan – fool and final(snatch)
p.s. – heard that GUY RITCHIE will be the chief guest at the premiere of ahmed khan’s “fool and final”…and ahmed khan will be making a “FOOL” of himself by giving the “FINAL” speech as a tribute to GUY RITCHIE!!ha-ha!!
Well Ricky, the bhatt camp and sanjay gupta are not worth mentioning when it comes to dvd remakes. everyone knows what they do.
BUT the bhatts seem to be o conscience ride these days. Gangster i suupose was original,irrespective of it being logically flawed. Kalyug is 8mm? I doubt. I dont think so. I have not seen 8mm but the plot def. isn’t similiar.
chaitanya it’s not a straight lift…but if you see 8MM you’ll realise that the set-up and the characters are very similar…ofcourse it would have been highly impossible to make an 8MM here because of the content material…you should watch it…one of nicholas cage’s brilliant performance(after “leaving las vegas”)…
Ok,so kalyug’s not a direct lift, right? I have a friend who knows Mohit Suri very well. He tells me that he refused to shoot Zeher without the dvd player on sets.So atleast this time they have tried to think something na. I guess even Metro ,anurag Basu’s next film is originail.Bu you never know.
I love Nicholas cage. Recently I saw adaptation and Matchstick Men. Amazing.
See HARDCORE..starring George.C.Scott.. Kalyug is a direct lift from that.. except the girls father became her husband in the hindi version..
yeah..i did both Jung and main aisa hi hoon.. for money..for whatever..am still writing Shaka Laka Boom Boom..well only the dialogues though..and that’s still no excuse..money is..by the way there are many more..
AK, you saying this really discourages me. I write for television now , thinking that I am still in college,chalta hai. I do it so I can buy Dvds and more Dvds and books.I feel like a prostitute already! Pimping out foregin film concepts to those imbeciles to adapt them for bored housewives and retired senior citizens. My only hope is that Once I am your age, I would have learnt enough to execute what I want to do and then people will pay me for that. Now you speak your mind,write the best of films, make the most sensible films, and you still do it. Thats scary! Is money never ever gonna cease to bother?
And holy cow!Kalyug IS Hardcore indeed! Any clues about Gangster?
Chaitanya..as long as what you do for yourself, when you are at the helm of the affairs..is genuine..then sometimes when there are dire unavoidable circumstances..only you know why you do those things..only you are in your shoes ..and you have to be honest enough to yourself and others to admit it..we are fighting to bring in some dignity,and a respectable position from where a writer can avoid any such thing to happen..all writers have got together under one roof..it will be official soon..
Gangster is inspired, not copy of Kim Ki DUK’s BAD GUY and a bit of Goddess Of Mercy..
Whatever said n done, I still like n respect Mahesh Bhatt. Atleast he accepts that he copies unlike some Bhansali. N he delivered many good films too…Saaransh,Arth,Daddy,Zakhm…I even liked Woh Lamhe.
Copying is a trivial issue. I’m not condoning that fact that plagiarism exists, but at the same time, I would like to believe that copying foreign films may just have increased the filmi vocabulary of many movie buffs in India. For example, how many people in India knew about Chan Wook Park and his revenge trilogy till Sanjay Gupta copied Oldboy? I’m sure it drove some people to see the original, and perhaps in turn explore deeper into Korean cinema. For a lot of Indians, our film culture is so overly dominated by Bollywood and Hollywood blockbusters that such copycats in fact may expose us to and help us realize that there is more to world cinema out there. Again, I’m not condoning plagiarism. But there is a slight bright side to the chori in Indian cinema. I just wish it was done legitimately, and I’m sure there are tons of producers out there who can afford to do so as well.
hi anurag…appreciate your honesty for speaking the truth regarding taking up certain projects for money…it must have not given you enugh creative satisfaction as a writer, but then you got to do what you got to do…over the years you must have watched so many foreign langauge films by now…i’m sure you can also expose some COPYCATS in bollywood…waiting for some unheard of rip offs…
hey people… i attended chaitanyas movie screening FOUR STEP PLAN… so m sharing my experiences
About the movie..should say it was a commendable effort by chaitanya… the research was outstandin.. this guy has done a gr8 job… every1 out here shud contact chaitanya and watch the movie once…
the way hindi movies were shown as copies with the correspondin hollywood movie clips was really good… i loved the editing ..
infact one can really spend a day talkin about copied movies…
i myself had many movie’s names sittin there which cudnt b shown in d one hour documentary…
It showd how shamelessly directors like BHANSALI(BLACK FROM MIRACLE WORKER), MANSOOR KHAN(JO JEETA WOHI SIKANDAR FROM BREAKING AWAY)have copied the entire movie with screenplay and few more movies like PAAPI GUDIA FROM CHILD’S PLAY… and moreover even old classic songs like BABUJI DHEERE CHALNA… MEHBOOBA O MEHBOOBA… OM SHANTI OM(KARZ) and many more….
Chaitanya have done a gr8 job and v should applaud for him…
after the movie people questioned chaitanya and his colleagues many questions and he and his friends were all prepared 2 give appropriate answers..even i asked a few
i met chaitanya then..and it was a good experience..he is def a talented guy.. bcuz of him m all powered up for my documentary on Engineering..hope ill b able 2 make it and show it 2 ull…
Thanx chaitanya!
well about sanjay gupta i would say… v need him… hes definitely a talented director and one need guts to copy an oldboy or reservoir dogs..
and the best part is he always does justice 2 the story… kaante is one of d best well made movies i can say… the way he made it…bhatt wud have scrwd d movie if he was 2 make it… or any other director…
m not supportin or justifyin plagiarism but sometimes it suits 2 someone… bhatts never takes guts 2 copy an unknown film… they r always on safer side and they copy some tested formula…
i feel v really need sanjay gupta..
well hes directin a movie called ALIBAUG..
hope dats original
Lets also not forget some older movies that bear fairly strong resemblances to others before them. What was different was that the “inspired” versions were in fact far better.
Satte Pe Satta is a lot more fun than Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Sholay is far greater than Mera Gaon Mera Desh
Seeta Aur Geeta is arguably more fun than Ram Aur Shyam
And then there are some that didn’t quite make it to the level of their originals, like Chori Chori was good, but not as good as It Happened One Night, and in turn, Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin wasn’t even close to being as good as Chori Chori.
There are also some that were genuinely inspired, but were not frame to frame remakes. Often I find these films stripped of a lot of deserved credit. Like Agneepath was heavily inspired by Scarface, but still holds its own in originality. People often discredit Sholay/Lagaan for being a rehash of Seven Samurai which is very unfair. The worst is when people call Munnabhai MBBS a remake of Patch Adams.
anyone knows about goodfellas being copied into hindi movie… cuz i think the startin scene of goodfellas(car scene) i have seen in some hindi film… if not goodfellas then the scene is def copied… but i dont remember the name of the film..
does ne1 know??
Bhavesh, thanks for all the compliments.:) Sanjay gupta has suudenly become a very personal issue since many feel he is crap and others say we need him. Lol!
Vijay, I completely agree with you.Completely. Except for the Satte pe Satta part maybe. Tendulkar once told me about a ‘one piece concept’ (I hope I got the word right) which most of our films seem to lack. Our films are always two,three stories packed into one. And I am not talking about hyperlink cinema here. Seven brides for seven brothers was a sweet musical with a one piece concept whereas Satte pe Satta is one of those insecured films which is scared of sustaining itself after a certain point and thus goes into the thriller arena. I know it’s an all time fav. but that’s what I feel. And specially when you say it’s better than Seven brides for Seven brothers. Masoom I guess can be called a better film than Man,woman and child.
“Our films are always two,three stories packed into one”
Melodramatic.. masala – we have got too many masalas in our cooking ;)
Chaitanya, I guess it’s a matter of taste. As far as I’m concerned, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers aint got Amitabh Bachchan in a double role. When the bad Amitabh gets out of the van to replace Mr. Goody Twoshoes, the film wins right there. As I said, personal taste. I like movies with bad guys, some khoon kharaba etc etc. That’s why I can’t sit past 5 mins of any Barjatya movie.
nice clip.
so, they even copied ’some like it hot’ by billy wilder!!! I guess bollywood must have copied ‘the apartment’ by the same director.The story goes like this — The hero (jack lemmon) works in a office and his bosses bullies him to get keys to his apartment so that they can bring a girl(shirely mclain)..and then jack falls in love with the same girl
funniest script i ever read.I am sure someone must have copied it.If not, i would.
There is nothing wrong with copying..but bollywood copies ..well..most of them copy movies which are successful rather than good.
isnt mann a remake of ‘an affair to remember’..even to the detail of ocean liner..
rgvs kshakshanam is a copy of romancing the stone ..but much much better than the original..
The apartment was remade as Yes Boss with SRk. So there you go taxydriver.
Yes boss is a scene by scene copy of “for love or money” starring Michael.j.Fox and Gabrielle anwar
http://www.bollycat.com/
Yes, I knew about ‘for love or money’. But isn’t yes boss also a lot like ‘The apartent’?
Talking of Saeed Mirza, I remember ‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’. And that reminds me of this entire fixation of remaking old hindi films unofficially. Like Raj Kapoor’s ‘Aah’ was remade as ‘Mujhse Dosti karoge’, and ‘Shri 420′ as ‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’. ‘Jeena Sirf Mere Liye’ was an official remake of ‘Anmol Ghadi’.
is LAGAAN remake of VICTORY??
No,Lagaan isn’t actually a remake of any film. But yes, it borrows many elements from certain films like ‘Naya Daur’, and ‘Escape to victory’.
Bhavesh,
I cant believe you think highly of Sanjay Gupta. He is a complete cheater cock. What greatness you see in copying an entire movie and making it in a different language? Right from Aatish to the remake of old boy, he has mastered art of copy-paste. I guess he will win hands down the next “movie from dvd” filmfare award.
watched the preview chaitanya..very Michael Mooresque i mus say(lol..no offense meant)…but its terrific…loved the background pulp fiction track..n editin is crisp..is there any chance of 1 more screening anytime soon..i missed on the 1st 1..btw did any1 notice that phir herapheri is scene to scene rip off of lock stock and two smokin barrels (ofcoz adapted to “suit” our audience)
No offense taken Sammy. It IS Micheal Mooresque. Hmmm,about the screening…Today CNN IBN did a story on us. Let’s see if someone organises a screening after watching that.Till then, no other screenings as of now. Will let you know for sure.
u r ryte jwalant… maybe m justifying plagiarism but only in case of sanjay gupta…
Should say he is not a regular bollywood director.. he has a gr8 way of storytelling… i just wanted 2 say that if at all ne1 else was 2 make reservoirs dogs or zinda.. they wud have failed miserably…
i hope he uses his talent in somethin original.. he is making ALIBAUG i suppose and hope its original
I heard Aamir’s next film is a remake of the Tamil hit GHAJINI. And, GHAJINI is a very poor rip off of MEMENTO. Coming from Aamir post LAGAAN and RANG DE, I am somewhat surprised and hope there is something that I don’t know about the project which will make it different than what I anticipate at this point.
And then I also read that he is producing a movie about farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Maharshtra written by some one called Rizvi. I hope this is true.
Vasu, yes I had heard that Amir Khan is remaking Ghajini which is a remake of Memento. I had also heard about him producing a film dealing with a father – child relationship, where the child is dyslexic or something on those lines. No clue about the farmer suicides film.
yeah vasu .. ghajini is indeed a very very very poor rip off of memento … I was ~X( after seeing ghajini.
@Vasu: Well, Ghajini had NOTHING in common with Memento (which I just loved), except for the memory-loss thing. So, its not exactly a remake, I guess. The one good thing about Ghajini, and probably the biggest reason it worked at the BO, was Asin. She really dominated whatever scenes she was in, really. I think the Hindi version has Priyanaka – no way can she do justice to that kinda character. The role demands somebody mischeivous and exuberant, sorta like Kajol.
hey chaitanya..ur documentary news is covered by indiafm too…way to go dude!!! congrats
link:
http://www.indiafm.com/news/2006/12/26/8512/index.html
Bhavesh, I was live on CNN IBN tonight with Subhash Ghai,Bobby Bedi and Alyque Padamsee talking about plagiarism in our films. The focal point of the half an hour feature was Four Step Plan. So yes, we are gettin media coverage.http://www.ibnlive.com/news/now-docu-on-to-copyright-or-wrong/29495-8.html
This is yesterday’s coverage. Will send you tonight’s link soon.
- Chaitanya, Congratulations! Hope you put in a good word for PFC
Bas Kya oz bhai, It’s thanks to PFC that the CNN thing happened in the first place.Thank YOU.:)
chaitanya, this is indeed awesome coverage for you and your team.. great stuff man! hope you sent it to IFFLA.. i hope to watch it there
>-
Great work Chaitanya & Co…Now that you’ve become a celebrity (i just saw you on IBN as well), a good idea would be to reach out to people like Mr. Bhansali and Mansoor Khan and get their opinions as well.
People would be really interested to know what they have to say about their F2F practices (yeah, we can coin this term for Bollywood ..Frame to Frame copy ..lol).
I sometimes wonder whether stars such as AB were ever aware of such antics or whether labeling Black as one the “landmark movies of Indian cinema” is anything but a shameless glorification.
BTW, are you planning any follow up parts to this documentary? “Copy” Bhatt ,”DVD” Gupta and Co have enough work to keep you guys busy for the next year as well :-)
Once again, good show folks!
Congratulations, Chaitanya, very cool preview. Quick question – how on earth did you get past the rights issues? I can’t imagine that the folks would have approved the rights given the subject
Curious as heck if there is a way around that.
Striker: Thanks. And yes, we are sending the film for IFFLA. But I guess you will get to watch it only if it’s selected.Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Nitin: What celebrity and all..I am just 19 right now. Lots of hardwork and learning to do.We would love to get opinions from Bhansali and others, but are they willing to? I heard somewhere that AB was really disillusioned when he heard about Black being ripped off from Miracle Worker.He said that I would not have done the film if I knew this. All this was after he was very angry for Black not being our entry for the oscars.
F2F is a good term.And no, no follow up to this docu. I want to move onto other more serious issues.
Thanks once again.:)
Shripriya: There was no way we could crack the rights issue.We just said ‘what the hell!’ and made it anyway. But now people tell us that we are safe. And anyways we have a disclaimer stating it’s only for private screening and not for commercial purpose.
FINALLY!!! i am so sick of watching a same story/setup from two different countries… so just wanna say congrats dude…i’d love to watch the whole documentary…i am already a fan!!!
i was also curious about the rights issues as Shripriya…
Congratulations on the coverage!!! I am so looking forward to more of your projects…
Chaitanya: Just thinking about your documentary. Since the plagiarism issue has been around in the Indian industry has been around for a long time and is so wide spread (in music and regional films as well),just wondering if it would be a good feasible idea to start a web site dedicated to this topic. Every film/musical product is reported as being original or a rip off on this web site (say something like www.shameonyou.com). Not that it will have any immediate effect but eventually people may become a little wary. Since you started off on this issue, just thinking out loud. Is it possible to see the whole doc on the web or to buy the cd?
Congrats Chaitanya..just saw the coverage of IBN…way to go brother…
- OM, cud you please post in the link
- found it…
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/now-docu-on-to-copyright-or-wrong/29495-8.html
vasu, in comment #38 above, jwalant had pointed a website link dedicated to the topic.. check it out and see if this is along the lines of what you had in mind.. http://www.bollycat.com/
speaking of remaking and getting inspired.. apparently even rediff is trying to help out filmmakers by giving them ideas of which movies to remake in hindi [-x
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2006/dec/26slide1.htm
Bollycat.com has stopped updating it’s database long time back. For music, http://wwww.itwofs.com rocks!
Here is the link for yesterday’s interview with Narendra Chaubey on ‘Face the nation’ : http://www.ibnlive.com/news/to-copy-or-not-to-bwood-gone-bankrupt-of-ideas/29561-8.html . Click on Watch video.
Hi Chaitanya,
Well done! Very impressive documentary what you posted at YouTube.
Keep updated you activities.
From Tokyo!!!
you know what i find hilarious is that whenever they copy a teen comedy or a kids movie they always have grown ups playing the teen/kid characters.
guys today’s release “I SEE YOU” is “JUST LIKE HEAVEN”…GET THE POINT??
DNA has an article up about this … “A Four Step Plan” to plagiarise unfortunately gets Chaitanya’s last name wrong …
for some strange reason, the URL didn’t make it through: here goes: “A Four Step Plan” to plagiarise
(censored): http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1071513
Lol ! I was really shocked to read my last name as Kamane! The journalist was a real lazy one. She did the interview over the phone. Now next up is the NDTV story. Will be aired in a day or two I guess.
On a rather delayed note, a more faithful filch of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment came in the form of the Amitabh Bachchan starrer Raaste kaa Patthar, which featured Shatrughan Sinha as a suffering poet with principles, heavy plugs for Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Dastak and Bhagwan screaming “Sex!Sex!” …
Phoenixnu, Bhansali’s next isnt ‘A Walk On The Wild Side’, but is ‘White Nights’ instead.
http://www.indiafm.com/news/2007/01/08/8601/index.html
I guess i’ll regret informing you of these new developments, but I still rate him as a director with style….. but a few of you may disagree…:(
Hello Chaitanya,
Thanks a ton for the great documentary and congratulations.
Unfortunately since I am based in the US, I won’t be abe to watch it som early. Unless some Hollywood guy plagiarizes it and shows it here. Hope to catch it on DVD some day.
Also, I would like to point out some novel ways in which sections from foreign movies are ripped off. Case in point – the scene in “Pitaah” where Sanjay Dutt surrenders to the police is a literal shot-by-shot rip-off of the surrender scene in “Braveheart” …. all the more amusing because Sanjay Dutt is a poor (and somehow strapping) farmer, who is riding a horse … Khoool !
Another case – the battle scene in Asoka, where Kareena Kapoor acts as if is shock, is again a shot-by-shot rip-off of the final battle scene of “the Patriot”. I also remember a gulti movie where the “Life is Beautiful” theme is copied where Guido’s wishes get miraculously granted (like a “stranger” throws down his keys exactly when he wishes it)
I am pretty darn sure there are plenty more
@BollywoodCharcha..”Life is Beautiful” one of my fav movies…which movie copied this theme??
@Barrish, after apologizing for hijacking Tamhane-saheb’s comment space (No more, promise) I will say that I honestly don’t remember. I saw two sections plagiarized, one was the key scene and another was a scene when a stranger puts the hat on Guido just when he prays for one ….. I got up in disgust at that point.
PS – Just realized Pitaah was a filch of “A Time to Kill”. So, a complete movie plagiarized from one source contains a section plagiarized from another one. Rapid head-spinning is starting ….
@Bollywoodcharcha: You don’t have to apologize to anyone for hijacking comment space.. Please go on. This ‘Life is beautiful’ kissa is most amusing.And pathetic as well.
@Bollywoodcharcha: That was a gult movie called “chirunavvutho”…infact the whole first half of the movie is from ‘life is beautiful’..ie till guido gets the girl….
Some remakes that you might not know
Double Impact – Bechain(Malvika Tiwari)
Tuff Turf – Love Love Love(Aamir Khan, Juhi)
Ghost – Pyar Ka Saaya etc, etc
More than half of the hindi movies are remakes of either foreign or South Indian movies.
Another example
Weekend at Bernie’s 1989 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098627/) is inspired by
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro 1983 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085743/)
Matrix copies from Gadar.
http://yourkg.blogspot.com/2007/02/bollywood-inspires-hollywood.html
Most of us would not know this for sure…
Main azad hoon(Javed Akhtar) … shamelessly lifted from Meet John Doe(Capra)
hey guys!
nice to see so much of heated talk about plagiarism and copies. However give me a clue as to where influence/inspiration ends and copy catism begins? I am writing a story plot and when I try to develop it, I automatically write things that when I look back, find similarities with one story or novel that I have read or a movie plot that I have seen. If I really separate everything that is even remotely influencing me, I find that the thoughts are rather dry and feel like a simple plain documentary of what I have observed. To simply put, if I remove all the influences and inspirations, I am left only with a realistic, but motionless plot/story, with very little imagination. Is there a proven way out of this “inspiration” and moving to real “imagination”?
Short Time – Gambler
American Ninja – Commando
Streets of Fire – Tezaab
I watched three of these movies recently.
Brilliant – I wished I could see the entire documentary!
Anycase since we are talking about “lifting” ideas from foreign films, here are a couple you guys have not mentioned (or maybe I overlooked?)
But I don’t know if the Desi Filmmakers have credited the foreign makers for their inspiration/copy? If they have – my apologies.
The recent ones I saw…
Bas ek pal by Onir (2006)- Carne Tremula by Almodovar(1997)
Bheja Fry by Sagar Ballary(2007) – La diner de cons by Francis Veber (1998)
“36 Chinatown” is a copy of an older comedy movie called “Once Upon A Crime” with Cybill Shepard. The scene on the train with suitcase carrying a dismembered body is copied almost frame by frame. I remember it because I loved that scene in the original. A lot of the copies that Hindi movies do have almost exact scenes copied, it surprises me that they can’t be sued. Copying an idea is different , but copying exact scenes including film angles is plagiarism. I’ve found the most original movies come out of South India.
one of the stories in ‘Life In Metro’ is similar to ‘the apartment
TZP-love ,mary
Fanaa-Eye of the Needle
Mann-An Affair To Remember
Ghulam- On the Waterfront
Raja Hindustani-Jab Jab Phool Khile
Akele Hum Akele Tum- Kramer vs. Kramer
Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin-It Happened One Night
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar-Breaking Away
DDLJ-A Room with a View