Sponsor PFCOne
(4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...
THIS is what can stop the Plagiarism Plague…
pla·gia·rism (n) - something copied from somebody else’s work, or somebody else’s idea that somebody presents as his or her own
Oh, and its illegal. Did you know you can actually get your ass sued for it? Or better yet, sue the pants off someone who plagiarized your hard work and creativity!
That’s what Sony Pictures Entertainment and Overbrook Entertainment are doing. The two Hollywood studios are rumored to be filing a $30 Million USD copyright infringement suit against Hindi film producers Eros Entertainment and K Sera Sera! Yup, bloody $30 million.
Could’ve gotten 3,000 original scripts for that much!
The film is question is David Dhawan’s recent superhit “Partner”, which as we all know is, to put in mildly, an unofficial adaptation of “Hitch”. Overbook produced Hitch for Sony, and as the rumour goes they’re now pissed right off.
Rumours also have it that this is may not be an isolated incident. Apparantly the growing popularity of Hindi cinema overseas has caused major film studios to take notice of their concepts being stolen. And they’re looking to end that trend in a resounding way.
Here’s a quote from Vishal Bharadwaj
“Foreign studios are making a beeline for India so they are more aware of the Hindi film market and they are bound to take action if their plots are lifted with permission” (I read the quote on Allbollywood.com, not sure if that was the original source though)
If this law suit does indeed go through, then consider plagiarism done away with in India. Yes, it seems like a dream… but one major player gets burnt, watch how cautious the rest will become… saanp ka kaata rassi se bhi darre…
Imagine what this could lead to… A much welcomed revolution in the industry… much bigger than the current indi-revolution… all films, big and small will be pressured to concentrate on coming up with fresh stories, original screenplays, compelling characters…
Finally talented writers like our own Anurag Kashyap, Jaideep Saini, Shridhar Raghavan, and many many others will get their damn due and show the world that Indian Cinema isn’t just the song and dance routine, its not just lifts of Hollywood and other foreign films… We have a tonn of great stories to tell about our people, our culture, our history, our times and even our future.
I liked what Rajat Kapoor recently said right here on PFC
“raghu romeo and mixed doubles and mithya have been all original works- these are my films and i wouldnt dream of stealing a film or an idea- i have about 300 ideas of mine waiting to be made, why would one need to steal any?”
I must admit though, I hate to see “Partner” being the (alleged) film being targeted (too bad it wasn’t something like “The Train”), because I grew up watching and loving David Dhawan’s films and not giving a damn if they were original or not. But I understand very well that this is the drastic measure the industry needs. Someone had to go down for the rest to realize what they’ve been doing and thus push hindi cinema into the right direction.
Well, either that or maybe just force producers/directors to be more innovative and find creative ways to plagiarize. I wonder what will happen to those films that steal from multiple sources… multiple lawsuits or will the film be safe as it can’t be traced back to any one source?
Let’s wait and see how this all plays out…
21 Responses to “THIS is what can stop the Plagiarism Plague…”
Leave a Reply
Our Comments Policy : The following kinds of comments are troll capped, blocked and/or commenter's identity reported publicly: Verbal abuse, personal attacks, hate statements, spam, trolls, advertising. Please assist us in keeping the comments clean. Use the contact form to let us know if you find unwarranted comments on PFC. Thank you.
- Raah Pe Rahte Hain - Gulzar turns a truck driver’s ditty into a song of life
- Rangeele Babu : Premchandian revolutionary character dares to challenge the God
- Manorama Six Feet Under (2007)
- Rock On is My Story and Yours
- Rock On… reviews begin
- Rock On Re
- Rock On is My Story and
- Rock On R
- Manorama Six Feet Under (
- Himesh Bhai ka
Recent Posts:
Hottest Today:
A timely write up Tony bhai, but in order for these Hollywood companies to actually follow up on their threats to sue, intellectual property laws in India need to be revised. Right now, they are quite loose. You change the character names, you change the setting, you add a few songs, and add your own twists to a few plot points, and the court considers it to be a completely different script.
I think there was some guy who commented on this same issue of Partner, that you cannot copyright a basic idea. As stupid as that sounds, it is the way in which the courts in India see it. Their reasoning will be like, “Ok…Casablanca was one of the first triangle love stories. So can the producers sue everyone who makes a triangle love story?” It’s a ludicrous justification, but that is the truth. And the filmmakers who plagiarize are not fools mind you. These people know very well, that the loose intellectual property laws protect them.
Overbrook and Sony will make threats of a $30M lawsuit now, but they will probably soon realize that its not worth their time and effort trying to resolve something like this in Indian courts.
For Sony, it’s probably more beneficial for them to hire copycat directors like David Dhawan and Sanjay Gupta and contract them to legitimately remake their own Hollywood productions in India, the way they have always been doing it.
Yaar Vijay bhai, I know the Indian copyright laws need some seriously overhauling… maybe this case could act as the needed precedent to encourage changes and stiffen up the laws…
As unlikely as that may sound, consider who’s filing the case… Sony pictures is no small animal… if they and their gang of lawyers take this case seriously enough, shit could hit the fan man… I wouldn’t be so quick to underestimate their capabilities of putting immense pressure on the Indian courts for this… Now $30million is a doubtful sum, but its not just about the money anyways.. its about protecting the rights of past, present and future productions and ensuring if anyone is making cash of the film any adaptations, then its Sony (or its subsidiaries/partners)
Just saying that you never know what could come out of this…
BTW I like your idea of hiring indian directors to make official remakes… might as well eh? lol…
I never cared for Partner nor expected anything else from it. What bothered me last week was when I rented an old DVD titled “School For Scoundrels”. It was the scene to scene original for Basu Chatterjee’s Choti Si Baat. I argued with people that nice films like Choti Si Baat are missing now a days and they should come back in place of these moroninc Partners and Bhagam Bhags. Well, so much for it…this is way beyond getting inspired…it is nothing but pure unadulterated copy…does someone know if GOLMAAL, ANAND and all those so called “classics” are also straight lifts?
But I read that Sony is suing them (EROS and K Sera Sera) in UK as both the production houses are registered there.
It has little to do with Indian copyright laws. Eros will be screwed big time.
Tony,yes one wonders about multi-source plagiarism.That seems to be an escape route.
Vasu… GOLMAL, ANAND, CHUPKE CHUPKE, MILI, NAMAK HARAAM, SATYAKAM, and any other film directed by HRISHIKESH MUKHERJEE (and even GULZAR-SAHEB) are 200% original, classic films. I know this because I cannot accept anything different!
Nahin, aisa mat kaho, yeh nahin ho sakta! Now that too HAS to be an original hindi dialogue… I can’t picture an exasperated gora melodramatically gasping “No, don’t say that, this just can’t be!”… Oh gosh, or can it??
Omprakash… is that the lawsuit in question or an extension of it? I suppose either way it is bigtime trouble for K Sera Sera and Eros… but for any real impact to happen in the industry I think something big has to happen in India…
Krysh, yeah thats a tough one… I mean can you be sued for lifting a part of one film and incorporating it in yours? Its either the best of the plague or the worst of it all things considered…
IF THAT’s TRUE…then HIP…HIP…HURRAH…:d
I read that they are seriously contemplating lawsuit. Sony wants to remake their own hollywood movies here and that’s the reason they are going for the lawsuit.
the shahid-kareena starrer movie directed by imtiaz ali which is in the making looks like an ‘inpired’ version of richard linklater’s ‘before sunrise’ and ‘before sunset’..shree ashtavinayak cinevision ltd be careful ‘before it’s too late’! castle rock entertainment and detour filmproduction will be keeping a tab on you guys!
This is the best thing to have ever happenned to bollywood, at least people will put there heads into creating something original and raise the standards..
vasu…Basu Chaterjee was no saint. he even made ek ruka hua faisla which is scene by scene,dialogue by dialogue lift of 12 angry men.
I have said this here before, and here it is again.
Sometimes a copy really is a copy. And, some themes are so universal movies based on that theme get made again and again. I find it difficult to think of something as a copy if it is just another take on the same source material. Many people share the same ideas, read the same books, have the same cultural references, and therefore are inspired and influenced by the same ideas.
Choti Si Baat can’t be a remake of School for Scoundrels as it was released fourteen years later. Partner is a copy of Hitch. The original inspiration for Hitch may have been School for Scoundrels. The idea of School for Scoundrels was a series of books published by Stephen Potter. Stephen Potter’s books on seduction were probably infouenced by the literary tradition of 18th century French novels of sex and seduction. What is a copy and what was influenced?
I am diverging from the original intent of this post right now to point out that every time someone cries, “Copy!”, it may not be so. Sometimes themes are universal, and if filmmakers take their inspiration from the same places, so be it. I think there needs to be a distinction between what is considered plagarism and influence, and I think that too many people are too quick to state that something is a copy.
And this by no means is a defense of those films that truly are copies. If someone makes copy of another film, then more power to the person whose ideas and works were stolen to protect their intellectual property. But, not all copies are copies, sometimes people are influenced by the same concepts and make those films based on their interpretations of those concepts…
1?
Um, I need to take back my entire comment. I just read the Filmwriting from a Scientist
t! I completely understand your point. For example 2 of our very own PFC authors are making films are their own interpretation/version of Devdas. Yet both are divergently different from each other (from all that I’ve read) and just as different from past incarnations of Devdas in Indian cinema.
This is clearly not a case of copying. Neither was any past version a copy of its predecessors. It’s just that they were inspired (in the true sense) to make a film based on a Indian literary classic.
But what Partner and a whole host of other films represent is not the same. Its a blatant attempt to sell the audience a Hindi version of a Hollywood or foreign film.
For the latter, where the line is drawn between being a “take” on the film, being an adaptation, or being a rip off is more often than not pretty black and white.
t! See both films. Why can’t someone copy after 14 years? I don’t get you. It was a sad moment for me to realize that one of my favorite Desi films is nothing but a ripoff.
@ Vasu - There is nothing to get from me but an apology. After your last comment, I realize that I misread your original comment (mixing up the order of the release dates), hence the confusion.
@ Tony - Exactly. Where I get frustrated though is with people trying to find copies where there are none. There are enough true copies of films being made to grouse about…
1??
Yeah t! I know what you’re sayin.. ppl can get overboard… especially when its not the whole film but just like a sequence… as Jerry Seinfeld would say “People! They’re the worst!”
“Yeh 1 - 1 kya hai, yeh 1 - 1??”
need more of Basu Chatterjee’s remakes ???
The Fortune Cookie - Lakhon Ki Baat
Yours, Mine, Ours - Khatta Meetta
12 Angry Men - Ek Ruka Hua Faisla
My Fair Lady - Man Pasand
7 year itch - Gudgudee
There are still many. Basu Chatterjee is known as one of the best filmmakers of Indian cinema. But even he copied.
Rajat Kapoor is not being honest either, his movie “Raghu Rameo” borrows liberally from the Robert DeNiro movie “The King of Comedy” (1982) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085794/
I have seen him criticizing the movie “Bhaja Fry” where he claimed that he did not know that it was copied from French movie “Dinner Games”. Now his own movie “Raghu Romeo” does not have any less inspired material than “Bhaja Fry”. Chori to chori hai, badi ho ya choti.