Where Inspiration means Copying – Welcome to Bollywood

We have heard many Bollywood movie makers in their interviews referring to some movie and stating that they are inspired by that movie. What they actually mean is that they have just copied the movie that they are referring to. In Bollywood parlance, inspiration means copying. Inspiration is a decent term, some kind of a euphemism.  

            It will be surprising to know that some of the famous works (if not celebrated) of some movie makers of Bollywood are just a commodity borrowed from outside but packaged in a new way to give an impression that product itself is new and genuine. When I write about this issue, some examples come to my mind.

            When I heard the story of Sanjay Leela Bansali’s movie ‘Black’, I was very much happy that at least now the industry was looking at different subjects than the regular romantic stuffs. But it was too disappointing to know that it was copy of 1962 Hollywood release ‘the miracle worker’. Same thing happened with Madhur Bhandarkar’s movie ‘life in a metro’. The subject was infidelity that existed between couples in the metropolitan cities. I thought the country was changing and after all art reflects life and the subject just reflected the current society. I was wrong when I came to know this movie was borrowed from the 1960 Hollywood flick ‘the apartment’. We all know the famous movie ‘Ghajini’ which came both in tamil and hindi was ‘inspired’ by Christopher Nolan’s movie ‘memento’, ‘ugly aur pagli’ from ‘My sassy girl’ which was in turn borrowed from a Korean movie.  These are the examples that I can think of right at this moment. There are many more copied from Hollywood or elsewhere.

            Jnanapeeth laureate, famous Kannada writer Shivarama Karanth had written a novel by name‘Chigurida Kanasu’. That was made into a movie by the same name by national award winning director Nagabharana. The movie was critically acclaimed but not a commercial success. The movie was completely copied to Hindi and was named ‘Swades’ which starred Shah Rukh Khan. The makers never gave credit to the original movie ever. There was an allegation that even the movie ‘Paheli’ was copied from the famous Kannada movie ‘Nagamandala’ which was also directed by Nagabharana.

            When I searched in Google about the Hindi movies that were copied from other sources(always uncredited of course!), the results were absolutely shocking. How would you feel when you come to know some of the movies that you adored were actually a rip off of some English movie?!! It was really shocking to know that even movies like Munnabhai MBBS, Lagaan or Sholay are copies. Then I understood why Oscar evades Bollywood. The below list gives some of the movies and their actual sources.

 

Hindi Movies	Copied From
1) Aitraaz	Disclosure
2) Baazigar	A kiss before dying
3) Chachi 420	Mrs. Doubtfire
4) Deewana Hue Paagal	There is something about Mary
5) Garam Masala	Boeing Boeing
6) Jism	Body Heat
7) Kaante	Reservoir Dogs
8) Koi Mil Gaya	E.T
9) Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya	Cactus Flower
10) Mujse Shaadi Karoogi	Anger Management
11) Murder	Unfaithful
12) Partner	Hitch
13) Raaz	What Lies Beneath
14) Sarkar	The Godfather
15) Taxi No. 9211	Changing Lines
16) Welcome	Mickey Blue Eyes
17) Josh	West Side Story
18) Krrish	Paycheck
19) Rang De Basanti	All My Sons
20) Dhoom	The Fast & The Furious
21) Kyon Ki	One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
22) Hum Tum	When Harry Met Sally
23) Kuch To Hai	I know What You Did Last Summer
24) Baadshah	Nick Of Time, The Mask, Rush Hour, Mr. Nice Guy
25) Akele Hum Akele Tum	Kramer vs. Kramer
26) Sauda	Indecent Proposal
27) Ek ruka hua faisla	12 Angry Men
28) Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya	Fatal Attraction
29) Hera Pheri	The Sting
30) Vaastu Shastra	The Grudge
31) Veer Zaara	The Hurricane
32) Qayamat	The Rock
33) Sangharsh	Silence Of The Lambs
34) Musafir	U Turn
35) Bluffmaster	Spanish Movie Nueve reinas(Nine queens)
36) Munnabhai MBBS	Patch Adams
37) Phir Herapheri	Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
38) Chak de india	Mighty ducks
39) Mohabbatein	Absolution
40) Rangeela	Win a date with Tad Hamilton
41) Sholay	The Magnificent Seven
42) Chalte Chalte	Forget Paris
43) Masti	Whipped
44) Har Dil Jo Pyaar Kareega	While you were sleeping
45) Kuch Kuch Hota Hai	Sleepless in Seattle
46) Lagaan	Victory
47) Kuch Na Kaho	Jerry Maguire
48) Main Hoon Na	Never Been Kissed
49) Agneepath	Scarface
50) Aradhana	To Each His Own

 

           Among these movies or for that matter any movies that are copied,  some are copied scene to scene from the original while in some others only plots are copied and they are tailored to suit the nativity. But, both amount to plagiarism. The Bollywood people get away with the lawsuits for plagiarism because of two main reasons:

1)       The original movie makers don’t even know that their moviers are being copied

2)       The exposure of Indian viewers to world cinema is less (The trend is changing of late)

            All these don’t mean to say that the Hollywood film makers are paragons of virtues who never get ‘inspired’. They do copy (but not to this dirty extent!!). Otherwise there would not have been any lawsuits against them. But the appreciable fact in case of Hollywood is that it has hardly faced any dearth of ideas. They always come with completely new stuffs every time. Bollywood film makers have to learn from them. But not very much can be expected from them when the very word ‘Bollywood’ is ‘inspired’ from Hollywood. But it seems greener days are ahead after the movies like ‘Taare Zameen Par’, ‘A Wednesday’ or ‘3 idiots’. At least let’s hope so!!