Click to play videoNew Delhi: This year has been a stellar year for Bollywood. Be it the chart-topping movies, big brand names or the mega moolah, the Hindi film industry romanced them all.
But the one thing that stood out was the ability of our filmmakers to adapt or get inspired or simply put, copy, a movie or parts of it to dish out a new product.
While there were several movies like Don and Dhoom 2, which were sequels, there were others like Malamaal Weekly and Tathastu, which were straight rip-offs.
Is there a dearth of originality within our film industry?
To answer that big question on CNN-IBN’s Face the Nation was a panel which included filmmaker Subhash Ghai; ad guru Alyque Padamsee; writer and director of Four Step Plan, Chaitanya Tamhane and Managing Director of Kaleidoscope Entertainment, Bobby Bedi.
We have always known it exists, we've talked about it and condoned it, but Bollywood’s affinity to plagiarise doesn’t seem to die down. And the rip-off artists of Bollywood often use euphemisms like ‘adaptation’, ‘inspiration’ or ‘research’ for copying.
Filmmaker Subhash Ghai explains that no art form is original. “All art forms are created by what already exists in the universe. It is with their vision and imagination that human beings recreate it. The difference lies in the fact if we are aping it consciously or unconsciously,” Ghai says.
Ad guru Alyque Padamsee agrees that there is a limit to creativity and points out that Shakespeare had once said that there are only 36 plots that exist within the creative field.
“Each one of Shakespeare‘s famous plays - Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juilet or Merchant of Venice - was ripped off from other novels and books. But the genius comes in when you take the material and turn it into something new,” Padamsee explains.
On a light note, Padamsee says that the meaning of the word copyright in the Indian context was the “right to copy”.
However, Managing Director of Kaleidoscope Entertainment, Bobby Bedi, has a rather different take on copying. While he agrees there is nothing wrong with taking a plot from an existing story, “but to take a picture frame by frame without acknowledging it is theft”.
“There is a mid-point where you can actually acknowledge where you have copied from. There is nothing wrong with that. You are taking a story set in one particular milieu and giving it access to your own country,” Bedi adds.
But then, in an age where filmmaking is all about big money and bigger stars, the arithmetic in Bollywood is changing and commerce is beginning to shape art.
Do we need stronger laws to deal with plagiarism?
A 1978 Supreme Court order states that in order to take action against the guilty, the copy must be a substantial and material one, which at once leads to the conclusion that the defendant is guilty of an act of piracy.
On whether there should be legal provisions to ensure that plagiarism in the film industry be minimised, Bobby Bedi says, “I don’t think it is wrong to redo a film if one feels that there is fresh audience for it. It may be because too much time has gone past and audiences have changed.”
“If someone has created an original work, they deserve the right to protect it and the right to remunerate for it,” he adds.
At this juncture, Padamsee points out that it wasn’t just Bollywood that was to blame for plagiarism.
“Hollywood has also copied others’ work. Seven Samurai was turned into The Magnificient Seven. Borrowing has been going on since Shakespeare’s time,” says Padamsee.
But he is quick to add, “Oscar Wilde had said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
A satire on Bollywood’s plagiarism
A group of youngsters in Mumbai have made a documentary on plagiarism in Bollywood.
Writer and director of the documentary, Four Step Plan, Chaitanya Tamhane, explains that the film is a sarcastic outlook at the entire issue. It enumerates the four ways in which filmmakers of Hindi cinema can copy and borrow.
Maybe plagiarism is so rampant now that it’s almost become like reality or something that is original.
Final Verdict: Can Bollywood ever get out of its copycat image?
28 per cent of the viewers said ‘yes’ while 72 per cent said ‘no’.
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