City collegians make a documentary on Bollywood plagiarism
Three teenagers from Mumbai have dared to expose what many cinema lovers ignored. In a 60-minute documentary, degree students from Mithibai College have rendered a sarcastic take on plagiarism in Bollywood, providing filmmakers with an excuse to defend themselves.
“They must dub it, stretch it, give it a spicy twist and finally deny or justify what they have copied,” laughs director Chaitanya Kamane. Accurately titled, ‘Four Step Plan’ the film is a combined effort of Chaitanya and friends Sudeep Modak and Samir Lukka. It provides evidence of how some well-acclaimed films are blatant Hollywood rip-offs.
“We conducted three months of research where we each watched 100 films, just to figure out certain scene-by-scene replication of plots,” he says. Be it Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Black’ which borrows from the 60s film, ‘The Miracle Worker’, or plot similarities between ‘Rang De Basanti’ and the French film ‘Jesus of Montreal’, the documentary includes an interesting segment by placing identical scenes side-by-side.
It also includes bytes from writes and directors who accept being carried away by the original film. “We have script writer Anjum Rajabali confessing that the plot of ‘Ghulam’ was directly used from the film ‘On the Water front’, because Mahesh Bhatt asked him to refer to the film,” adds Samir.
The movie which might be a part of the film festivals at Los Angeles and California speaks of plagiarised music too. “We have evidence of how certain SD Burman and Shankar-Jaikishen tunes sound exactly like those in films from the 30s and 40s,” sums up Sudeep. “The film aims to target the average movie lover and asserts the lack of copyright laws in Bollywood.”
Director’s defense
“I agree that filmmakers who want to remake films should lawfully buy the rights. But these rights are unaffordable for producers. This doesn’t justify plagiarism, but when there is plagiarism on TV and pop culture, why do we always become main targets?” Vikram Bhatt, director
“Producers today expect 5-6 script options, which become very difficult for the filmmaker. Many believe that when the script is borrowed it is easier to convince the producer, because nobody wants to spend money on writers.” Onir, director
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