Copycats watch out, Hollywood’s watching
Hollywood seems to have finally stripped Bollywood of its guise of “inspiration”. American studios have started fiercely guarding their rights.
Hollywood seems to have finally stripped Bollywood of its guise of “inspiration”. The recent $200,000 bailout by BR Films, which was dragged to court by Hollywood studio Twentieth Century Fox for “plagiarism”, is probably just a trailer of the trouble in store for the copycats.
American studios have started fiercely guarding their rights. Recently, Warner Brothers took preemptive action, issuing notices in newspapers, cautioning against possible remakes of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — a movie based on the theme of age reversal. The makers of the Departed too have issued similar notices.
In February, the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) — a sort of Hollywood watchdog — set up office in Mumbai to “protect and promote the American film industry”. MPAA director Rajiv Dalal claims that the body will not only go after DVD pirates, but also keep a watch on Bollywood producers to prevent copycat films from being made.
“These are signs of growing corporatisation of the film industry and the evolution of copyright laws in India,” says lawyer Amit Naik, who represented Twentieth Century Fox in its case against BR Films. “India is huge market where a derivative product like a remake has tremendous value. Why should a copyright holder be denied his share of the pie?”
Even desi filmmakers are ready for action. In March 2007, Sippy Films dragged Ram Gopal Verma to court, alleging copyright violation for his film Ram Gopal Verma ke Sholay. Verma changed the name to Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag, which fizzled out at the box office.
Karan Johar, who officially bought the rights to remake Stepmom from Sony, says, “It’s time we realise that we can’t get away with plagiarism. All this while, we had been getting away with a lot of things. But now, it’s imperative that we get official and honest about it. I am glad that some kind of monitoring is happening. With the presence of studios, such as Fox, Warner and Sony here, and also because it has really become global village, there is no escape from stealing something. I am truly glad that most things will be transparent now.”
Film-maker Madhur Bhandarkar feels that this will help original scriptwriters and other technicians. “Someone like me spends years researching a subject to make a realistic movie. Some others lazily pick up an English film plot and make a movie out of it. This is a wake up call for those guys. Those who want to ape an English movie, will have to do so officially. Those who don’t, will depend more on the writers in our country. I am truly happy,” he says.
Today one can easily identify the “heavily inspired” music compositions of Anu Malik and Pritam, but much revered music composers like RD Burman and Bappi Lahiri too did it. The music of the sizzling Mehbooba Mehbooba number from Sholay — the film itself was supposedly inspired by Seven Samurai — was supposedly lifted from Say you love me by a Greek singer. The 2008 case, in which music composer Ram Sampath dragged Rakesh and Rajesh Roshan to court for plagiarising his music in Krazzy4, was definitely music to artistes’ ears. Roshans settled the matter with Sampath for Rs2 crore to ensure the film’s release.
American studios have started fiercely guarding their rights. Recently, Warner Brothers took preemptive action, issuing notices in newspapers, cautioning against possible remakes of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — a movie based on the theme of age reversal. The makers of the Departed too have issued similar notices.
In February, the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) — a sort of Hollywood watchdog — set up office in Mumbai to “protect and promote the American film industry”. MPAA director Rajiv Dalal claims that the body will not only go after DVD pirates, but also keep a watch on Bollywood producers to prevent copycat films from being made.
“These are signs of growing corporatisation of the film industry and the evolution of copyright laws in India,” says lawyer Amit Naik, who represented Twentieth Century Fox in its case against BR Films. “India is huge market where a derivative product like a remake has tremendous value. Why should a copyright holder be denied his share of the pie?”
Even desi filmmakers are ready for action. In March 2007, Sippy Films dragged Ram Gopal Verma to court, alleging copyright violation for his film Ram Gopal Verma ke Sholay. Verma changed the name to Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag, which fizzled out at the box office.
Karan Johar, who officially bought the rights to remake Stepmom from Sony, says, “It’s time we realise that we can’t get away with plagiarism. All this while, we had been getting away with a lot of things. But now, it’s imperative that we get official and honest about it. I am glad that some kind of monitoring is happening. With the presence of studios, such as Fox, Warner and Sony here, and also because it has really become global village, there is no escape from stealing something. I am truly glad that most things will be transparent now.”
Film-maker Madhur Bhandarkar feels that this will help original scriptwriters and other technicians. “Someone like me spends years researching a subject to make a realistic movie. Some others lazily pick up an English film plot and make a movie out of it. This is a wake up call for those guys. Those who want to ape an English movie, will have to do so officially. Those who don’t, will depend more on the writers in our country. I am truly happy,” he says.
Today one can easily identify the “heavily inspired” music compositions of Anu Malik and Pritam, but much revered music composers like RD Burman and Bappi Lahiri too did it. The music of the sizzling Mehbooba Mehbooba number from Sholay — the film itself was supposedly inspired by Seven Samurai — was supposedly lifted from Say you love me by a Greek singer. The 2008 case, in which music composer Ram Sampath dragged Rakesh and Rajesh Roshan to court for plagiarising his music in Krazzy4, was definitely music to artistes’ ears. Roshans settled the matter with Sampath for Rs2 crore to ensure the film’s release.