Posted:
The Bollywood xerox machine | 2008-07-07
Movies which you never thought would be rip-offs!
It's not uncommon for Bollywood to copy movies and flaunt the fact without any remorse. This rather new found concept of aping foreign movies and calling it 'Inspired cinema' is actually quite old. Just that earlier it was Hollywood that they mimicked and now it's the world cinema, from French to Korean to Iranian.
A lot of your favourite old Hindi classics are probably second hand versions. And while watching 'Love Story 2050' the other day, which probably has been inspired from all the Hollywood futuristic movies ever made from 'Blade Runner' to 'Back to the Future', The Bitch decided to expose some of the movies which she thoughT had narrowly escaped the public eye.
Krish
Let's start with our desi super idiot 'Krish'. The prequel of course everyone knows was inspired by the Steven Spielberg classic 'ET' but what many not know is that scenes by the dozen were also flicked off from 'Paycheck' for Krish. The concept of the future machine and most of the futuristic bit shown in the movie are blatant and shameless rip offs. We didn't like this horrible movie anyway and Rakesh Roshan's claim that it should be been sent for the Oscars was another whammy!
Even the posters of the movie were copied from 'Daredevil' and 'Underworld'.
Sadak
Mahesh Bhatt shamelessly ripped off from not one but three Holly flicks here- 'Cyborg', 'Taxi Driver' and 'Lethal Weapon'. Just like many more of his movies there are scenes here which were picked up and just placed in the Indian context.
While the plot is based on how in 'Taxi' Robert Di Niro was a lonely person on the brink of a nervous breakdown who sympathises with a prostitute, the scene where Sanjay is holding a gun towards his face, trying to pull the trigger is a shadow of a similar one in 'Lethal Weapon'. Again the one where Sanjay goes to collect his taxi back from some thugs is similar to the one in LW where Mel goes to some drug peddlers.
The worst off all are the action scenes in the end where Sanjay is tied like Jesus Christ to a crucifix and tortured. I remember being quite young then and suddenly shouting to my dad that didn't we just see this in 'Cyborg' the other day!
And there is a long list of other movies to join this one, from the Bhatt Camp, which are rip-offs or so called 'inspired movies'.
Clearly this guy's movies should be banned. Earlier it was the premise, now it's the music. Anu Malik in an interview clearly stated once that Mr. Bhatt gives me the tunes and says this is what I want for my movie (we are not taking Anu's side in any way though, what he has done also deserves the worst form of punishment known to mankind) .
And now this so called intellectual camp doesn't even spare real life tragedies, making them into 70 mm mockeries, just like what his camp did with 'Jannat' recently!
Mein Khiladi, Tu Anari
Surprised? Even we were. Wasn't this one of the most genuine Hindi movies ever to become a hit? Apparently it wasn't.
The original of this one was 'The Hard Way' starring Michael J Fox and James Woods.
Sheesh! I really didn't expect this, as I remember enjoying this movie when I first saw it some 10 odd years ago. Of course, now whenever it's playing on TV all the flaws are visibly apparent.
This film was very important for the careers of Akshay and Saif. It was a huge hit and both were appreciated for their acting, and went on to star together in similar roles in other movies.
It was Shilpa Shetty's third movie, and second hit. Her first one being 'Baazigar'!
The story in this case was a wee bit different but the premise was the same. Famous actor who wants a change in his look in his new movie is flabbergasted by the style and attitude of a very action oriented cop and pulls strings to stay with him 24X7 and copy his mannerisms. A lot of the scenes and dialogues between Saif and Akshay are carbon copies of the ones between Michael J Fox and James Woods.
Baazigar
Anybody remember 'Power of Attorney'?
Another camp apart from the Bhatts which has now perfected the art of faking originality are the white panda brothers, Abbas -Mastan.
Their movies which are supposed to be thrillers are almost all the time foreign scripts downloaded from the net and made into a Bollywood movie. Still they rarely excite you to the smallest muscle movement. They somehow tend to lose the logic and premise of the original movie.
Goes to show that even copying is an art!They somehow managed to strike gold with 'Baazigar' though.
This one was a scene by scene copy of 'A kiss before dying'. Since in Indian cinema you can't have the hero playing the bad guy for no apparent reason, Shahrukh was shown as avenging the usurp of his fathers company and his killer. This was not a part of the original script.
The success of this film was an important landmark in Shahrukh's career as it won him his first Filmfare as the best actor, with many more to follow in the later years.
Pyar To Hona Hi Tha
Anees Bazmee known for his over the top, nonsensical movies was responsible for putting together this piece. His other movies over the years have also been copies of other foreign films.
The original of this one was the Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline starrer French Kiss. Both, the Hollywood and the Bollywood versions were commercial successes and raked in the moolah.
The Indian version left a lot to be desired and the only thing which saved it was the chemistry between Ajay and Kajol and their acting. It was full of blaring mistakes which even an amateur film-maker would feel disgusted about.
The Bitch only hopes that his upcoming movie 'Singh is Kinng' makes some sense while watching it( though that's going to be difficult), unlike 'Welcome' and 'No Entry'.
Main Aisa hi hoon
Ajay Devgan doesn't keep himself well informed about Hollywood it seems, or he doesn't read the script properly.
And in this case Harry Baweja who usually casts Ajay in his films flicked this from 'I am Sam', before this he also ripped 'Qayamat - City under threat' from 'The Rock' and his recent piece of crap 'Love story 2050' is also a hotch potch of several Hollywood movies. So that makes it three in a row.
There is nothing different between 'Main aisa hi hoon' and 'I am Sam'. Even Ajay's acting is a lot like Sean Penn, who was also nominated for an Oscar for his role. Ajay on the other side was rightly neglected by all the awards.
Some other copied movies which we thought were worth mentioning are:
Taxi no 9211 -Changing lanes
Malamaal Weekly -Waking Ned divine
Rakht-The Gift
Chor machaye shor - Blue Streak
Chalte chalte - Forget Paris
Saajan - Roxanne
King Uncle - Annie
Khhote Sikkey - For a few dollars more
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar - Breaking Away
Josh - West Side Story
Karz - The reincarnation of Peter Proud
Movies which you never thought would be rip-offs!
It's not uncommon for Bollywood to copy movies and flaunt the fact without any remorse. This rather new found concept of aping foreign movies and calling it 'Inspired cinema' is actually quite old. Just that earlier it was Hollywood that they mimicked and now it's the world cinema, from French to Korean to Iranian.
A lot of your favourite old Hindi classics are probably second hand versions. And while watching 'Love Story 2050' the other day, which probably has been inspired from all the Hollywood futuristic movies ever made from 'Blade Runner' to 'Back to the Future', The Bitch decided to expose some of the movies which she thoughT had narrowly escaped the public eye.
Krish
Let's start with our desi super idiot 'Krish'. The prequel of course everyone knows was inspired by the Steven Spielberg classic 'ET' but what many not know is that scenes by the dozen were also flicked off from 'Paycheck' for Krish. The concept of the future machine and most of the futuristic bit shown in the movie are blatant and shameless rip offs. We didn't like this horrible movie anyway and Rakesh Roshan's claim that it should be been sent for the Oscars was another whammy!
Even the posters of the movie were copied from 'Daredevil' and 'Underworld'.
Sadak
Mahesh Bhatt shamelessly ripped off from not one but three Holly flicks here- 'Cyborg', 'Taxi Driver' and 'Lethal Weapon'. Just like many more of his movies there are scenes here which were picked up and just placed in the Indian context.
While the plot is based on how in 'Taxi' Robert Di Niro was a lonely person on the brink of a nervous breakdown who sympathises with a prostitute, the scene where Sanjay is holding a gun towards his face, trying to pull the trigger is a shadow of a similar one in 'Lethal Weapon'. Again the one where Sanjay goes to collect his taxi back from some thugs is similar to the one in LW where Mel goes to some drug peddlers.
The worst off all are the action scenes in the end where Sanjay is tied like Jesus Christ to a crucifix and tortured. I remember being quite young then and suddenly shouting to my dad that didn't we just see this in 'Cyborg' the other day!
And there is a long list of other movies to join this one, from the Bhatt Camp, which are rip-offs or so called 'inspired movies'.
Clearly this guy's movies should be banned. Earlier it was the premise, now it's the music. Anu Malik in an interview clearly stated once that Mr. Bhatt gives me the tunes and says this is what I want for my movie (we are not taking Anu's side in any way though, what he has done also deserves the worst form of punishment known to mankind) .
And now this so called intellectual camp doesn't even spare real life tragedies, making them into 70 mm mockeries, just like what his camp did with 'Jannat' recently!
Mein Khiladi, Tu Anari
Surprised? Even we were. Wasn't this one of the most genuine Hindi movies ever to become a hit? Apparently it wasn't.
The original of this one was 'The Hard Way' starring Michael J Fox and James Woods.
Sheesh! I really didn't expect this, as I remember enjoying this movie when I first saw it some 10 odd years ago. Of course, now whenever it's playing on TV all the flaws are visibly apparent.
This film was very important for the careers of Akshay and Saif. It was a huge hit and both were appreciated for their acting, and went on to star together in similar roles in other movies.
It was Shilpa Shetty's third movie, and second hit. Her first one being 'Baazigar'!
The story in this case was a wee bit different but the premise was the same. Famous actor who wants a change in his look in his new movie is flabbergasted by the style and attitude of a very action oriented cop and pulls strings to stay with him 24X7 and copy his mannerisms. A lot of the scenes and dialogues between Saif and Akshay are carbon copies of the ones between Michael J Fox and James Woods.
Baazigar
Anybody remember 'Power of Attorney'?
Another camp apart from the Bhatts which has now perfected the art of faking originality are the white panda brothers, Abbas -Mastan.
Their movies which are supposed to be thrillers are almost all the time foreign scripts downloaded from the net and made into a Bollywood movie. Still they rarely excite you to the smallest muscle movement. They somehow tend to lose the logic and premise of the original movie.
Goes to show that even copying is an art!They somehow managed to strike gold with 'Baazigar' though.
This one was a scene by scene copy of 'A kiss before dying'. Since in Indian cinema you can't have the hero playing the bad guy for no apparent reason, Shahrukh was shown as avenging the usurp of his fathers company and his killer. This was not a part of the original script.
The success of this film was an important landmark in Shahrukh's career as it won him his first Filmfare as the best actor, with many more to follow in the later years.
Pyar To Hona Hi Tha
Anees Bazmee known for his over the top, nonsensical movies was responsible for putting together this piece. His other movies over the years have also been copies of other foreign films.
The original of this one was the Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline starrer French Kiss. Both, the Hollywood and the Bollywood versions were commercial successes and raked in the moolah.
The Indian version left a lot to be desired and the only thing which saved it was the chemistry between Ajay and Kajol and their acting. It was full of blaring mistakes which even an amateur film-maker would feel disgusted about.
The Bitch only hopes that his upcoming movie 'Singh is Kinng' makes some sense while watching it( though that's going to be difficult), unlike 'Welcome' and 'No Entry'.
Main Aisa hi hoon
Ajay Devgan doesn't keep himself well informed about Hollywood it seems, or he doesn't read the script properly.
And in this case Harry Baweja who usually casts Ajay in his films flicked this from 'I am Sam', before this he also ripped 'Qayamat - City under threat' from 'The Rock' and his recent piece of crap 'Love story 2050' is also a hotch potch of several Hollywood movies. So that makes it three in a row.
There is nothing different between 'Main aisa hi hoon' and 'I am Sam'. Even Ajay's acting is a lot like Sean Penn, who was also nominated for an Oscar for his role. Ajay on the other side was rightly neglected by all the awards.
Some other copied movies which we thought were worth mentioning are:
Taxi no 9211 -Changing lanes
Malamaal Weekly -Waking Ned divine
Rakht-The Gift
Chor machaye shor - Blue Streak
Chalte chalte - Forget Paris
Saajan - Roxanne
King Uncle - Annie
Khhote Sikkey - For a few dollars more
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar - Breaking Away
Josh - West Side Story
Karz - The reincarnation of Peter Proud
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