Bollywood that which churns out more than 100 films in a year, is lately seen giving script and music a stepmotherly treatment. Time and again we have seen how Bollywood has been frantically trying to imitate Hollywood. We mean, whatever happened to originality? Does the word ‘originality’ even resonate with the producers nowadays? Because in Bollywood’s vocabulary, getting inspired clearly means photocopying.
Exploring creativity and making use of imagination is what cinema is all about! But nowadays, filmmakers are seen giving up on the endless possibilities of cinema by limiting themselves to inspiration or should say copying, the West. Well obviously stories and screenplays are spiced with melodrama and songs and a fancy package of ‘plagiarism’ is set before you!
What is more disturbing is the fact that established stars and directors are seen resorting to plagiarism. Aamir Khan who is currently filming for Lal Singh Chadha happens to be a remake of Tom Hank’s Forrest Grump, Salman Khan’s Bharat was a remake of the Korean film ‘An ode to my father.’ Well, we aren’t painting everyone with the same brush, but this is a fact in Bollywood. Any actors you name, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham, Ajay Devgan, are all guilty of starring in movies that are rip-offs of other flicks.
Plagiarism in Bollywood not only includes copying plots, but it also includes other aspects of filmmaking—movie poster, music, background score, etc. Even music is either copied or remixed despite India’s rich history in music. Bollywood music composers try to ease their work by lifting tunes from across countries without giving proper credits to the original sources. One such recent example is of Hollywood music composer-singer Dr. Zeus who slammed Bala filmmakers for plagiarising his song. And as Bollywood musicians roll out one remix after another other, this fails to excite fans as the music industry clearly shows a lack of imagination and even compromise on the quality.
But we as the audience can demand original content from filmmakers.