Namastey London is gunning for Poran Jai Joliya Re. But how clean has ‘copywood’ been of late? T2 cuts & pastes
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Spot the difference. At one point of time, Bollywood would only copy from Hollywood blockbusters. Then it targeted smaller Indie films. Sanjay Gupta thought of going east and Korean films became the flavour of the season. Now, European cinema is also happy hunting ground. Soham Shah’s Luck not only takes the human betting scene from the black-and-white French film 13 Tzameti, it also borrows plot points from a Spanish film called Intacto. Plus, there are snatches from the Hollywood film Condemned. The last-named summed up the fate of the three-in-one remake. | |
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The way Aamir Khan defended Ghajini was stupid. He said he didn’t understand the original Memento and so he would rather watch the simplified copied version. If one of Bollywood’s superstars can be so unabashed about copying, why blame smaller films with smaller stars? Not to forget that many of the films that have made Aamir — Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (Breaking Away), Ghulam (On the Waterfront), Akele Hum Akele Tum (Kramer vs. Kramer) — are all fairly accurate copies. No wonder they call him Mr Perfectionist! | |
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So many crores were spent on shooting in Universal Studios, Hollywood. So many crores were spent on the cameos from the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards. Then why couldn’t Kambakkht Ishq producer Sajid Nadiadwala pay just a little bit more to buy the official rights to remake the 2002 Tamil film Pammal K. Sambandam starring Kamal Haasan and Simran? Old habits die very hard in Copywood, right? | |
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This one is three much. Billu director Priyadarshan is one of the most reputed names in the south and Billu producer is Shah Rukh Khan himself. So when you are remaking the Malayalam Kadha Parayumbol, why not be open about it? What’s more, it had already been remade in Tamil and Telugu with Rajanikanth. Even SRK had admitted it was a remake; only Priyan came out fighting with “only the motif has been taken while the narration is completely different”. Sell us another, Mr hera pheri! | |
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Rubaru is an old-style Xerox copy, where even the camera angles must be the same. At least director Mohit Suri (Zeher, Woh Lamhe) wins the Confession Box Award for admitting that he had actually watched the DVD of Out of Time on the sets while making Zeher. That must be what most of the Bollywood makers do, but on the sly. If Only (starring Jennifer Love Hewitt) was the original for the Randeep Hooda-Shahana Goswami-starrer | |
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The Bhatts must find pride of place on this special list. After all, they make it a point not to let go of any Hollywood hit. Earlier they would copy thrillers; now they are into horror. So Raaz 2 wasn’t exactly The Mystery Continues, it was rather The Copy Continues. It had generous doses of The Ring and The Grudge, but Final Destination was the film from which the basic premise was taken. | |
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When you make socially relevant films, fingers are usually not pointed at you. But those who have seen both Onir’s Sorry Bhai! and the Steve Carrell-starrer Dan in Real Life, know how similarly the two stories flow. And our problem is not just with what you copy but how you copy — he could have at least copied better and kept Calcutta’s (or at least JU’s) laaj, yaar. | |
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| To be fair to Dasvidaniya, it had its original moments and Vinay Pathak was so good in the lead. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that the concept of the film was heavily borrowed from The Bucket List and Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru. What does a dying man do? Well, make a list of things he always wanted to do. When a film like Anand could have come out from the same industry, what’s stopping the new directors from recreating rather than regurgitating? | |
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Singh is Kinng maker Anees Bazmee is reportedly set to helm the Bollywood remake of the hilarious box office money-spinner The Hangover, being produced by Kambakkht Ishq man Firoz Nadiadwala, with Abhishek Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh and Katrina Kaif being the rumoured choices for the central characters. But before the remake — official or otherwise — gets underway, t2 goes about the casting business (sadly, minus the couch)...
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Vinay Pathak as the eccentric, lovable and very popular Alan (Zach Galifianakis). With a perpetual dazed expression and the best one-liners in the business, Pathak can bring the house down with: “It would be so cool if I could breast-feed (the baby).”
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For the oh-so-cool Imran Khan, slipping into the shoes of the suave and sexy Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper) should be a cakewalk. “Would you please put some pants on? I feel weird having to ask you twice.” The Jaane Tu dude will surely carry it off.
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If Imran’s there, can Ranbir Kapoor be far behind? Going by his comic timing in Bachna and film award functions, the Kapoor beta is sure to fit the bill as the irrepressible Stu Price (Ed Helms). And Ranbir without a tooth? Cute. Very cute.
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We know that missing groom Doug (Justin Bartha) didn’t have much to do, but Shahid Kapur would surely grab more screen time after his super double bill in Kaminey. And wouldn’t he look super cool in a tan, when exchanging garlands with Deepika?
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Fretting over a missing groom and looking fetching? Deepika Padukone is a natural choice as Doug’s fiance Tracy Garner (Sasha Barrese). (Wonder how toothless Ranbir would swallow Casanova Shahid waltzing away with his girl.)
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She gave us a peek into her comedy skills in Delhi-6, and so the feisty Sonam Kapoor is our choice for Jade (Heather Graham), the stripper with a heart of gold. Something tells us she will look cute with a baby — and her Saawariya hero Ranbir!
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This might be a little bit of a stretch, but we couldn’t think beyond Rajpal Yadav as the ‘exsqueezeit’ “don’t mess with me” gay mafia kingpin Mr Chow (Ken Jeong). “So long, gay boys!” — here comes Rajpal.
