When a smart, love story-infused revenge saga like Ghajini sweeps the box office, becoming the only Indian film to earn Rs. 100 crore across the country in under a week, it hardly surprises anyone. The film, starring Aamir Khan, was refreshingly unusual for Indian audiences.
But what if the extraordinary story wasn’t screenwriter A.R. Murugadoss’ own? By now, most movie-goers know it wasn’t. They may have even seen the original, American academy award-winning film, Memento (2002). For many years Bollywood producers have been greenlighting derivatives of foreign films — many of them American. As Sanjay Chel, screenwriter of Partner (2007), which many agree is a replication of the American movie Hitch (2005), says, “We get inspired.” All this while, Hollywood — thousands of miles away and largely unaware of Indian cinema — did not notice that its films were being copied. But the jig is up. Since the turn of the century, when the government granted official status to Bollywood as an industry, the US slowly started to become aware of Indian cinema. And now, the collision of Los Angeles and Mumbai has put the spotlight on intellectual property rights (IPR). In Bollywood, growing awareness and enforcement of IPR is pushing producers toward more original, local fare. As for Hollywood, it has started going after the copycats. On June 15, the Bombay High Court stayed the release of BR Films’ Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai, which 20th Century Fox alleges is a remake of their 1992 Oscar Award-winning film My Cousin Vinny. In April, Warner Bros. issued a public notice against any adaptation or remake of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, following rumours that Vipul Shah was making a copycat film.
Inspiration or Copying?
Ronnie Screwvala, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures, insists that there is not as much plagiarism as is made out to be. Directors, too, are dogged in their defense of ‘inspired’ films. Rakesh Roshan, who has been accused of taking inspiration from Hollywood since his first film Khudgarz in 1987, which many say is a replica of the American Kane and Abel (1985), explains it this way: “There are only five or so subjects in the world. We make films on these subjects. We take inspiration from all around, what we read, what we see. These are not copies.”
(This story appears in the 31 July, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
@ Winstar: Of course Ghajini is a rip off of Memento. You contradict yourself by revealing Memento's/Gajini's plot then saying they are not copied.
on Jul 28, 2009I couldnt agree more with this article on the way hollywood movies are being copied and made into "Hindi" movies.. the movie " derailed" is another example... But please check your facts completely before you publish the same.. Memento and Ghajini are in no way copies... Its another thing that the movies talk about a guy who has short term memory (and who writes and tattooes down stuff)... but the plots are entirely different.. While the Hindi "Ghajini" is a run of the mill typical bollywood "revenge" potboiler which involves a rich boy-poor girl romance.. Memento is a dark psychological thriller filmed by Nolan in the most amazing way.. there is no way one can even compare the two movies' stories.. more or less call one the copy of the other...
on Jul 23, 2009