Looking at the history of Bollywood, it hasn’t always been an ideal world. In a bid to bring unique content to Indian viewers, film-makers have often taken “inspiration” from books, sacred texts, and sadly, also blatantly copied story-lines from Hollywood! Multiple controversies have surfaced regarding copied music, plots, and even movie posters. While it does seem slightly saucy, a number of our ‘favorites’ have, in fact, been inspired by Hollywood.
Take a look!
1. Kyo Ki.. Mai Jhooth Nahi Bolta / Liar Liar
Starring Jim Carrey, Liar Liar is a classic movie where Carrey plays the role of a lawyer who loses his ability to lie. Being a compulsive liar, his life takes a roll and a comedy ensues. Bollywood movie Kyo Ki.. Mai Jhoot Nahi Bolta followed the same theme and even similar scenes at some instances, and starred the one actor who can possibly match Jim Carrey in terms of comic timing- Govinda.
2. Ghajini / Memento
Winning 5 awards in various categories at IIFA, Filmfare and Producer’s Guild, Ghajini is counted as a stellar performance by Aamir Khan. The movie was actually inspired by Nolan’s Memento that released in 2002. The story follows the life of a man suffering from anterograde amnesia who tracks down the killers of his lover by taking help of his body tattoos and polaroids.
3. Oh God Tussi Great Ho / Bruce Almighty
No one else could have fit in to the role of Bruce other than Jim Carrey. The king of comedy paired up with the ever-green Morgan Freeman (as God) to create a film that is remembered even after years of its release. However, the Bollywood version of it with Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan did not really go down well with the audience.
4. Salaam-e-ishq / Love, Actually
A super-duper typical Bollywood movie revolving around one center idea- love. The movie revolves around 6 couples and the part that love plays in each of their lives. Salaam-e-ishq was inspired from Love Actually, a Hollywood movie with the same plot.
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5. Shaukeen / Boys’ Night Out
Making a movie about old men & sex and presenting it to the Indian audience of 1982 was definitely a task. However, Basu Chaterji does a great job as the movie maintains a high level of dignity both in treatment and presentation. Shaukeen, starring the best of yesteryear actors A K Hangal, Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutt, Mithun Chakravarty & Rati Agnihotri, was loosely based a 1962 English comedy called ‘Boys’ Night Out’.
6. Koi Mil Gaya / E.T
Sci-fi was an unknown genre to the Indian audience before Rakesh Roshan’s Koi Mil Gaya. It was a very obvious copy of Steven Spielberg’s E.T- a landmark movie, except for a few changes in the plot here and there.
7. Chachi 420 / Mrs. Doubtfire
This laughter riot created by Kamal Hasan is still alive in our hearts. Chachi 420 was a rip off of the 1993 film Mrs. Doubtfire, where Robin Williams dresses up as a woman to work in his ex-wife’s house so that he gets to spend more time with his kids. Both the versions had the audience is in splits!
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8. Manorama Six Feet Under / Chinatown
Despite changes in plot and characters, Manorama Six Feet Under draws inspiration (and also acknowledges it in the film) from Chinatown by Roman Polanski. A background score from the movie honors this inspiration. A film ahead of its time, it did not receive much appreciation from Indian audience but the critics lauded the film and its artful dialogues.
9. Bang Bang / Knight and Day
This Hrithik-Katrina starter is the official Bollywood remake of Knight & Day, a Hollywood movie released in 2010 with Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise in the lead roles. In India, the movie could not charm the audience much, but was praised for action sequences and music.
10. Mohabbatein / Dead Poet’s Society
Save for the whole angle of ‘parampara, pratishtha, anushasan’ and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s ghost, the movie Mohabbatein looks loosely based on Dead Poet’s Society (1989). The similarities in the characters of Raj Aryan Malhotra and John Keating are uncanny!
Bollywood has come a long way and produced some masterpieces that have inspired Hollywood movies in the recent times. Shocking, but true.
Quite a lot of Ctrl C + Ctrl V going on around here!
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