Plagiarism in Bollywood or we can say Originality crisis in Bollywood. This document explains the basic reason behind copying of movie concepts by bollywood from hollywood and other areas.

1. Hello Friends,
Is there a sense of déjà vu when you go to see Hindi films? After watching movie like ‘Partner’
or ‘Ghajini’ did you feel a sense of familiarity?
The first reaction of my friend after watching ‘Teen Patti’ in a nearby theater was “watch 21
instead”. This one sentence summed up everything about the film.
So, Bollywood, $2.2 billion-a-year film industry, which churns out some 800 movies annually,
continues to borrow plots, sequences, ideas and sometime the whole movie from Hollywood.
This trend, which gained speed in mid 90’s refuse to slow down. Every year a large no. of
Hollywood films are recycled in one way or another and presented to the Indian audience. The
media, critics and diehard cinema lovers complain but filmmakers refuse to budge. Few notable
examples of copied/inspired films are Zinda, kidnap, Josh, Race, Kaante etc.
Anupama Chopra, a film critic in Mumbai, said. "Personally, I am really glad. It got to the point
where I said to one director, 'Where is your artistic skill?' And he looked right at me and said:
'My skill is knowing what to steal.' "
Bollywood has often been accused of being plagiarising – not only movies but music as well .
Some believe upto 60% of Indian movies are simple remakes – mainly of English and American
films, thus causing originality crisis in Bollywood. Why do Indian filmmakers copy Western
directors? Do they suffer from a lack of originality?
Few Hits, many Misses
Bollywood directors and script writers often choose a good foreign language film but fail to
produce a quality film in India. Most of the times we see these films biting the dust at the box
office. Some recent failures are Dil Bole Hadippa, God tussi great ho, Thoda Pyaar Thoda
Magic, Ugly aur Pagli etc. (Inspired by She’s the Man, Bruce Almighty, Mary Poppins and My
Sassy Girl respectively) but even after the debacle of these films, the copycat bug continues to
be a nemesis of the originality in Hindi film industry. The reasons are pretty simple. It is easier
to pick up a foreign film, indianize it in one way or another, complete the shoot in quick time
and you have a product ready to be delivered. If the film clicks then they are a happy lot. Even if
the film misses out at the box office, the maker don’t lose much since the distributors are the
one who endure all the losses.

2. A no. of big Bollywood hits in the previous years have been inspired or copied from some
foreign film. Films like Welcome, Raaz, Heyy Babyy were inspired from Mickey Blue eyes, What
Lies Beneath and 3 Men and a Baby respectively.
And the greatest flick ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ is copied from ‘Patch Adams’. The mega success of
the copied films makes the filmmakers even more brazen thus leading to a spate of new copies.
Copying and Inspiration
Though copying and inspiration are two different things, but, in India, the distinction between
the two has blurred – thanks to our filmmakers. Getting inspired from a foreign film is not
something new here. Many old Hindi films like Parichay, Dharmatma and even Sholay were
inspired from a foreign film. For e.g., Parichay was inspired from The sound of Music but there
was a lot of difference in the narrative. Copying means lifting the characters, scenes, and plots
etc. from one movie and putting it in another movie with minor or no changes. For e.g. the
movie Partner was a copy of Hollywood film Hitch since not only the major characters and the
basic plot of the film was lifted but many scenes were copied as well. List of such copied films is
very long. But most of the filmmakers deny it. Today many good films, which were actually
inspired from some foreign film, are put in the same bracket as the copied ones. The reason is
obvious – copied films outnumber the inspired flicks.
Is Inspiration Bad?
Inspired cinema is not bad if the quality of the film is good. A good inspired film is one which,
though having similarities with original, stands out on its own. One recent example that comes
into my mind is that of Ram Gopal Verma’s Sarkar. Those who have watched this movie as well
as Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’ would know the similarity in the basic plots between
these two films. But the similarity ends here. ‘Sarkar’s script is very different from the
Hollywood film. This is one good example of inspired cinema which has its share of originality
and is loads better than the copied cinema.
Reasons for Copying
There are various reasons behind the copycat business in Bollywood. The biggest reason is the
desire to earn quick bucks without investing too much time and efforts.

3. Omar quereshi, a famous critic, said that "The biggest motivation for making a successful movie
is that it brings money and appreciation. So filmmakers go for a tried and tested formula by
taking inspiration from Hollywood."
These days Indian cinema is being driven by the brain and not by the heart. Producers look for
a sure-shot formula and aren’t willing to try something new. They believe that the combo of a
hit foreign film script and big stars will pay rich dividends. Though it doesn’t always happen and
films like Naksha (inspired by Welcome to the Jungle) fail badly . Script writers are to be
blamed too for this since this trend of copying was given the initial momentum by few of their
fraternity.
Today many young and promising script writers suffer due to this since there are very few
producers who are willing to try a new and original script. Star system too plays a role here.
After signing a big star for a huge amount, most of the producers don’t wish to take any sort of
risk.
Winds of Change
All is not gloomy out there. Slowly things are changing in Bollywood as well. The crop of young
filmmakers along with the entry of corporate world has produced some rich cinema in last 2-3
years. Directors like Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bharadwaj, Imtiaz Ali and Rajkumar Hirani write
their own scripts and take time to develop it. The films like Dev D, Kaminey, A Wednesday, Jab
We Met, Wake Up Sid etc. are few notable examples of a good quality cinema.
Some credit should be given to the vigilance of the Hollywood film industry as well. In the past
few years the producers in the west have objected the blatant copying of their films by the
Indian filmmakers. The makers of Hitch had slapped a legal notice on the producers of Partner.
Due to increasing awareness in Hollywood about the copying business going on here, Indian
producers these days are showing interest in buying the copyrights of the original films.
We do not mind hindi movies being inspired from english ones. But we have heard of actors
being shown videos of the original film and being asked to perform in the same manner. Surely
that can be avoided and directors will certainly fare better on Intellectual Property by being
more subtle in their approach.
Whether good or bad, there’s definitely one positive point which benefits those Indians who
cannot understand English or do not enjoy watching Hollywood movies. With the indianized
version of these movies, they certainly enjoy some incredible ideas born in Hollywood minds,
live on Indian theatre and television screens. A recent announcement that Bollywood wants to
remake "The Hangover" prompted an MTV India call-in show to be flooded with text messages
and calls of support.

4. Finally, I would like to say that ‘It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.’
Good quality cinema based on original works can give Indian cinema the recognition it craves
for, and not the copying act.
Thank You.