Bollywood overly inspired by Hollywood!

It comes as no surprise that Bollywood filmmakers have been 'inspired' by our western counterpart, Hollywood, on more than one occasion. But how many rip-offs do you really know about?  With KJo's remake of Stepmom (starring Kareena and Kajol in principal roles) already on the floor, here's BollyCurry with our list of the biggest Bollywood copies.

Aap Ki Khatir and The Wedding Date

A tale of love, lies and betrayal with colleague Akshay Khanna falling for Priyanka Chopra, who has only pulled him along to make her ex, Dino Morea, jealous; who actually only has eyes for best friend Suniel Shetty's bride-to-be Amisha Patel, who is also Priyanka Chopra's sister. Phew, such a confusing tale can only belong to an Indian movie right? Wrong!

AKK is based on the 2005 Hollywood flick, The Wedding Date, starring Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney.  Much of the script, and even some of the dialogue is exactly the same;  minus Himesh Reshammiya crooning in the background.

Dostana and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

Those of you who have seen both will realize that the storylines aren't exactly the same. Dostana follows hunks Abhi Jr and John Abraham as they lie about being gay to score an apartment, only to fall for their pretty roommate Priyanka Chopra. Unfortunately, she's besotted with her hot new boss Bobby Deol.

Meanwhile, in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, widower Kevin James convinces fellow firefighter Adam Sandler to enter in to a domestic partnership so that James has someone to name as his children's beneficiary after his death.  But once words get out, both men must lie through their teeth to convinve everyone that they are, in fact, gay.

Whilst the plots may differ, some scenes, such as an inspector turning up at their doorstep to verify their relationship, have been 'inspired' by the original.

Partner and Hitch

These two movies are so similar that David Dhawan could have easily titled his venture Hitch - the Indian Version and be done with it. Love Guru Salman Khan must do his best to set up nerdy Govinda with his gorgeous boss Katrina Kaif.  Meanwhile reporter Lara Dutta falls for Salman Khan, without knowing that he's the very same Love Guru she's trying to unmask.

Hitch follows the same storyline with Will Smith, Kevin James, Amber Valletta and Eva Mendes respectfully.

Most of the plot is the same, as is the dialogue, the dance scene, the inhalor scene and ... well, you get the point.

Salaam Namaste and Nine Months

In 2005's Salaam Namaste, an architect-cum-chef (Saif Ali Khan) falls head over heels for a radio jockey trying to pay her way through Medical School (Preity Zinta).

Rewind to 1995 where Nine Months follows a Child Psychologist's (Hugh Grant) seemingly perfect romance with a beautiful ballet teacher (Julianne Moore).

But when both girls fall pregnant, the men balk at the responsibility only to conveniently realise by the end of the movie that they can make it work.  At least with Salaam Namaste Siddharth Anand attempted (and failed) to create his own movie without blatantly copying Nine Months.

Heyy Babyy and Three Men and a Baby

When a love child turns up at their doorstep, three bachelors must struggle to adjust to surrogate fatherhood, with many hilarious consequences.

But whilst the 1987 comedy, starring Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg and Ted Danson, included a drug dealing sub plot; 2007's Heyy Babyy focused on Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Fardeen Khan's growing parental affection for the child, and their hilarious schemes to get their daughter back when mother Vidya Balan turns up to claim her.

Interestingly, director Sajid Khan cited 1990's Malayalam hit, Thooval Sparsam, as the script Heyy Babyy was taken from.

Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai and My Best Friend's Wedding

Upon the release of Yash Raj Films 2002 hit, Director Gadhvi insisted that Julia Robert's My Best Friend's Wedding provided less than 1% of the inspiration for the movie!  Hard to believe considering that Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai shares not only a name (translated in to Hindi) but also a large chunk of the plot with MBFW.

On hearing the news of Dermot Mulroney's engagement to Cameron Diaz, best friend Julia Roberts realizes that she is in love with Mulroney and does her best to sabotage the wedding to get her man.

Whilst the storyline remains the same for Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai, the Bollywood version showcases a male protagonist in Uday Chopra, desperate to win back Tulip Joshi from fiance  Jimmy Shergill. 

Ek Ajnabee and Man On Fire

2004's Hollywood version of the novel, Man on Fire, by A. J. Quinnell may have been a gritty, violent piece of work; but it still piqued the interest of director Apoorva Lekhi who decided to cast Amitabh Bachan and Richa Vaidya in the roles previously played by Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning.

There are hardly any differences between the two movies that follow a bitter and tired bodyguard who grows close to his charge and does all that he can to bring her back when she is kidnapped.

Salaam-E-Ishq and Love Actually

Love Actually, featuring a huge star cast compromising of Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, Rowan Atkinson, Laura Linney, Martine McCutcheon and Lucia Moniz, became a major 2003 hit.  Not suprisingly, Bollywood followed suit with Salaam-E-Ishq which boasted a similarly star-studded ensemble cast including Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Govinda, John Abraham, Vidya Balan, Ayesha Takia, Ishaa Koppikar, Akshaye Khanna, Sohail Khan, Shannon Esra and Anjana Sukhani.

Whilst the individual stories themselves differ (barring the mid-life crisis experienced by Alan Rickman/Anil Kapoor), the lives of different couples in unique situations are entwined in a tale of heartbreak, friendship and love in both cases. Unfortunately, Salaam-E-Ishq failed to recieve the same amount of success as its counterpart, Love Actually.

Teen Patti and 21

Unfortunately, Teen Patti proved to be another Bollywood flick that failed to live up to the success of it's Hollywood predecessor. 2008 drama starring Jim Sturgess and Kevin Spacey re-enacts the true tale of six MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) students, trained by a professor to become experts in card counting who eventually rake-in millions in winnings from casinos. 

Whilst 21 paints Harvard student Spacey as the main protagonist, Teen Patti finds its male lead in Amitabh Bachan as the mathematics professor whose new theory enables him to crack the probability behind the card game of teen patti.

But whilst the maths is beyond us, the plot and exploration of human greed remains the common factor in both movies.

Humraaz and A Perfect Murder

1998 thriller, A Perfect Murder, follows successful wall street hedge fund manager Michael Douglas who runs in to financial difficulties and realises that his younger wife, Gywneth Paltrow, is having an affair with penniless artist Viggo Mortensen.

Directors Abbas-Mustan admittedly take a different route with Humraaz where two lovers from a dance troupe, Amisha Patel and Akshaye Khanna, plot to dupe wealthy businessman Bobby Deol in to falling for Amisha so that they can make off with his money.

The second part of both movies focused on the husbands (Douglas and Deol) employing Mortensen and Khanna (respectively) to kill off their wives.  But whilst poor Paltrow is left alone in the end, at least Amisha Patel gets her man in Humraaz.

Copyright  BollyCurry

User Rating  (9 Votes)

Views  12310

Go to top

User Comments

If You are a member of India-forums, Then You can also log in here.