Has Bollywood Run Out Of Original Ideas?

    • Dheeraj.Jangra@timesgroup.com
    • Publish Date: Sep 14 2016 7:56PM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Dec 14 2016 4:47PM
Has Bollywood Run Out Of Original Ideas?

Just a few months after Baar Baar Dekho was said to be “inspired” by The Time Traveler's Wife (2009), now, it seems SRK-Aalia Bhatt starrer Dear Zindagi is also, allegedly, inspired from Canadian TV series 'Being Erica'. Even though director Gauri Shinde has rubbished the reports saying, "Dear Zindagi is a deeply personal film. There is only one thing it borrows from - that's my life. There are a million films and serials with therapists like there are with doctors. Just because there is a doctor in a film, does not mean it borrows from another film with a doctor." The accusations once again bring to the forefront B-Town's undying love for copying content, which it fondly calls inspiration. 

The problem is endemic

The motto is simple: Take Hollywood plot, sprinkle it with peppy dance numbers and melodrama. Shake well, and you've got a Bollywood movie. Directors would often argue that they get “inspired” from the plot. But there's a fine line between getting inspired by the work of another person and plagiarizing it, sadly Bollywood seems unashamed in crossing that line repetitively.


 Do you agree that Bollywood lacks originality? Please share with us your views. 


Some directors argue that a Hollywood movie would never sell in India unless it had been "Indianized." By “Indianized’ they mean adding songs and dance sequences, changing the name of the characters, adding a new location but keeping the borrowed plot intact.  It's appalling that in this day and age Bollywood filmmakers are still resorting to the easy way out – plagiarising Hollywood. No wonder, we have not been able to make a mark on world cinema.

 Aamir Khan's Dhoom 3 is inspired from Christopher Nolan's The Prestige

What is more disturbing is that even the established stars and directors instead of leading by example are resorting to plagiarism. We know that Aamir Khan’s Ghajini was “inspired” by Memento, Dhoom 3 by The Prestige. Likewise, Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra One blatantly borrowed elements from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Iron Man, Spy Kids and numerous other Hollywood flicks. Action sequences in Salman Khan’s Dabbang were ripped off from Sherlock Holmes and other Asian movies. Salman’s earlier movies Partner and God Tussi Great Ho were copied from Hitch (2005) and Bruce Almighty (2003) respectively. Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish 3 was heavily inspired by the X-Men franchise.

We are not painting everyone with the same brush but by and large this is the story. You name any actor—Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachaan, John Abraham, Ajay Devgan—all are guilty of starring in movies that are rip-offs of Hollywood flicks. But, plagiarism is not just limited to copying plots it extends to other facets of filmmaking—movie poster, music, background score etc. Even the name Bollywood is inspired from Hollywood.

 

The Korean connection

 

 Rocky Handsome is an official remake of South Korean revenge thriller The Man From Nowhere

In the last decade a new wave of 'Korean films' have created a flutter in the world cinema with their masterfully woven psychological thrillers. Naturally, this has caught Bollywood attention. So, it has now started looking at ‘Far East” for inspiration. Recently released Rocky Handsome was a remake of South Korean thriller, Man From Nowhere (2010). Ek Villain, released in 2014 was a remake of I Saw the Devil. Whereas, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's comeback movie Jazbaa was a copy of Seven Days. Similarly, My Sassy Girl became Ugly Aur Pagli, The Chaser became Murder 2, A Bittersweet Life became Awarapan, and Oldboy became Zinda.

Giving due credit

Movie buffs have become used to the idea of films being inspired by Hollywood. The noticeable change now is filmmakers are officially buying remake rights from Hollywood studios. Karan Johar's 2010 dud We Are Family was among the first Bollywood films to start the trend. This year release Brothers was an official remake of Warrior (2011). Fox have lately bought the rights of the Hollywood hit The Fault In Our Stars for a Bollywood adaptation. Hansal Mehta's widely acclaimed Citylights starring Rajkummar Rao is yet another example where due credit was given to its British- Filipino inspiration Metro Manila.  

But blatant copy or rightful remake notwithstanding, why is it that the Hindi film industry continues to look overseas for ideas?

The biggest problem – Bad script writers

A script writer is the biggest star of any project—like in Hollywood— but here he is a sidelined entity. "Attention is paid to the costume designer, to the actor, but not to the writer, who is the film's backbone. It's a sad state. Nobody wants to devote time to the creative process," said Komal Nahta, editor of trade guide Film Information. Until and unless filmmakers invest in writing process, good and original content would remain out of grasp.

We as audience can do our part by demanding original content from filmmakers.

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Comments

Bhavana Jaison Atomic Energy Central School No 2

Currently Hollywood and Bollywood both are losing its originality. Most of the Bollywood movies are smirched with masalas thinking that it will attract the crowd. The directors and script writers are forgetting that the new generation lost interest in all the smirch stuffs . While discussing about Hollywood they are producing the movies which are unrealistic even to our imagination .

Vandana Subash City International School Wanowrie

The Bollywood directors rarely have original ideas.Whenever we say that some movie is good,we realize that its copied from some foreign movie.Watching an original thriller or suspense movie is so rare nowadays!

Harini MS NAGARJUNA VIDYANIKETAN

Bollywood does lack originality, but not all films can be blamed to plagiarize. We do have original films like PK, beautiful biopics like Neerja, and classics like Bum Bum Bole and TZP. The nature of some films mustn''t be used to describe the whole industry. After all, there also exist a number of bollywood films we barely know about.

Sarath Kumar RM Bethel Mat Hr Sec School

Nowadays people get bored to watch Bollywood movies because many directors writes almost the same scripts with romance and fight scenes and with some songs. Young generations have lost interest in watching those films. Most of the movies have same script of Hollywood movies.

Mugdha Chatterjee Delhi Public School, Durgapur

Yea, this is definitely true. But, Bollywood also has originality in awesome films like- 3 Idiots, Bajrangi Bhaijan, Neerja.............

Kritika Malhotra Indira National School

I feel that doing something original and more creative will attract a bigger crowd and may strike a chord with people as nobody would have seen the movie with a similar story line. I also feel it will earn the movie crew and bollywood more respect than the respect they get for just copying or as they say, getting ''inspired'' by a movie or idea. We can also notice that copying is having an adverse effect on our younger generation too. many children just copy ideas from the net.

Himanshi Dhawan Saffron Public School

Well, bollywood stands out to be a big plagiarist. The originality and the creativity is hampered due to such activities. A director as well as the actors don''t do a bit more as depicted in the movie being copied. It also doesn''t leave an indelible impact on the people. Thus, they find it to be a repetition and take less interest in watching it.

Brenda Marshal PADUA HIGH SCHOOL-MANKHURD

Yes!! Bollywood lacks it''s originality because most of the movies are just translated. But still it has some emotional, full of action and complicated stories like ''Pk , Bajrangi Bhaijaan,Neerja,Rustom,..........

Hansika bhardwaj PRESENTATION CONVENT(RED FORT)

The directors of Bollywood films should not totally copy the whole content,rather they should think of the original concept on their own .

Dev Manwani FR AGNEL MULTIPURPOSE SCHOOL-AMBERN

almost all the movie of Bollywood are copied from the Hollywood movies or some other movies. they all think that the people are unaware of the movies being released in Hollywood. Hollywood are far better than the Bollywood. their movies are the best, only a few movie can compete them. so Bollywood scrip writers can think of a new movie rather than only making copied movies.

Urvi gupta DAV PUBLIC SCHOOL (SR)(DAYANAND VIH

Yes , many movies from Bollywood are copied from Hollywood movies . only some movies are liked all over the country due to their originality . If they copy, then half of the concept should be of their own .

Aishwarya Iyer Deens Academy

Yes it really does seem like that. All that bollywod movies have these days is the same old romance or thriller. But there are ofcourse exceptions. But yes, as Bhavana says, even Hollywood is losing originality.

P S Geethanjali Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan S.V Vidyalaya

May be there might be movies copied from Hollywood but it is wrong to blame the entire Bollywood.There are so many movies which have only original content of their own.Ofcourse,they may copy from others but indeed the way they present I like it even though they are copied.In India everybody doesn''t know English and would see english movies.In fact,up to know even I don''t know some of these movies that have been copied from other.

Fiza Sultana.R pristine public school

I guess bollywood wants to get back its old memories from both Hollywood and bollywood. Bollywood song specialy but they are better than the old ones as this generation likes song they are making.

Fiza Sultana.R pristine public school

I guess bollywood wants to get back its old memories from both Hollywood and bollywood. Bollywood song specialy but they are better than the old ones as this generation likes song they are making.

Yashita Nagpal BHARTI PUBLIC SCHOOL (SWASTHYA VHR)

Bollywood is losing its originality and trying to copy others without realising that truth comes out anyway. Original content should be maintained and not copied and displayed.

Onkarpreet Bhavan Vidyalaya

Bollywood has really lost it. That unprecedentedness is now no where. Every other film is a remake.

Onkarpreet Bhavan Vidyalaya

However, there is some originality. All our biopics are original.

Fiza Sultana.R pristine public school

I guess bollywood wants to get back its old memories from both Hollywood and bollywood. Bollywood song specialy but they are better than the old ones as this generation likes song they are making.

P S Geethanjali Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan S.V Vidyalaya

Meanwhile,let me add a few more movies to this list they are Bang Bang copied from "Knight and day" and even Baaghi from "The raid: Redemption.Agneepath from "Scarface".Race from "Goodbye Lover" and Sawaariya from "Let motto Blanche" etc..The list is never ending.All the best Bollywood for at least your future projects must not be copied from Hollywood.

Pragya RUKMINI DEVI PUB. SCHOOL(PITAMPURA)

Yes, I think that Bollywood is running out of originality. Nobody wants to take risk and make a movie with a new story.

Ritvik Baweja BAL BHARTI PUBLIC SCHOOL (PITAM PUR

Well, talking about the prevailing state of our film industry, there is a lot of plagiarism going on. Instead of exploring new ideas and plots, the directors are looking for shortcut alternative which is stealing someone''s else plot( most probably Hollywood) and displaying it in Bollywood. Even though some of the copied flick were superhit. But it definitely throws light on the lack of creativity and imagination of Indian directors. Our film industry is in a grave danger.

Swaleha Ansari Padua High School , Mankhurd

I agree with it but most of the people in India didn''t understand English so doing some copy is not and it is not good. So what the case if B-town director are doing Mitch masala ,they are bringing Hollywood movie to India in anew direction.

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

Mehek Sayyed Padua High School , Mankhurd

People are intrested to see real movie nor which are fake.Having super-power"s and ETC....They get''s lesson from real story and enjoyed to see that and easily get bored with superstition and out of imagination stories...

priyanka singhal HILLWOOD ACADEMY(PREET VIHAR)

When you are intended to cheat, your originality dies. Cheating and killing ingenuity is merely a mark of disrespect. Indian Cinema is famed around the world not only for the brilliant talent it broadcast but also the way it portrays the ideas. Even the admirers rise their expectation after back to back superheats. Indian directors cheating a foreign plot is a stain on bollywood''s prestigious history. Moreover it''s also diminishing the expectations of the audience.

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