It’s an old question but important: Why can’t India, the world’s most prolific producer of films, make movies with better scripts instead of copying ideas?
Plagiarism is not new in the Indian film industry. Whether it be blatant copies or slight dissimilarities, Bollywood has been copying Hollywood movies forever. ‘Bang Bang’ was copied from ‘Knight and Day’, ‘Pyaar Tou Hona Hi Tha’ was an exact copy of the movie ‘French Kiss’, ‘Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi’ was copied from ‘The Parent Trap’, ‘U, Me Aur Hum’ was copied from ‘The Notebook’, and many many more movies are a perfect example of what plagiarism looks like.
The latest example of plagiarism made by Bollywood is Sharman Joshi’s upcoming movie ‘Congratulations’ where Joshi plays a pregnant man. Yes! We all had a deja vu while reading this. The concept was an original idea of Hollyoowd who produced a movie in 1994 titled ‘ Junior’ featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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Junior follows an Austrian-American scientist named Alex Hesse, who agrees to undergo a male pregnancy from a newly developed drug Expectane. Joshi’s upcoming movie will release on February 3.
This copied turned-inspired remake (well that’s how Bollywood quotes) is a reminder of why Bollywood should find better scripts and ‘original’ ideas as Arnold Schwarzenegger did it 30 years ago. Secondly, why is Bollywood has been compelling to show something impossible? Why does not the Indian film industry accept mediocrity?
Bollywood has not learned about recent box office disasters. Shamshera, Laal Singh Chaddha, and Dhaakad; big-budgeted movies in spite of extensive promotions and a stellar star cast miserably failed at the box office. On the other hand movies such as Kashmir Files and Drishyam 2 even with a mediocre budget ruled 2022’s box office.
