Comment - Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena - Confidence

On my last post (Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena - Inspired from Confidence), an avid blogger Girish has made the following comment:

>Is there something wrong in being inspired by another flick or in doing a >remake. I agree credits have to be given

I thought it best to write a post on the same. I partially agree with Girish and partially disagree. There's nothing wrong in being inspired from another movie or in doing a remake. There are many movies that have been inspired from other fims (mostly films from Hollywood) and they do not even give the credits. But these inspired movies have been suitably made to suit the Indian purposes.

And the other way to be inspired is to copy the movie frame to frame. That to me is zero creativity. Considering the field is considered to be creative, there is some element of creativity that needs to be shown by a filmmaker.

Giving credit to the original film / film-maker is to some extent being honest towards one's work. However, some of our film-makers do not even bother to do that while some genuinely give credit where it is due.

Girish further commented that:

> If you appreciate the contraints a Indian producer has to work in (he >really can't afford to buy the remake rights, plus the media looks down >on remakes). Plus its unfair to call inspiration a copy.

Hindi film industry is not what it used to be about 7-10 years ago. Today, funds are being channelised to the film industry in a much more transperent, correct and legal manner and the industry is slowly inching towards corporatization. In these circumstances, I cant buy the argument that an Indian producer has to work under financial constraints.

I am not sure who the industry works with regards to buying movie making rights. I agree that it would be expensive if the Indian producers were to ask the big Hollywood Studios for remake rights. However, I dont think media looks down on remakes. There have been movies that have been remade in Hindi (remakes of South Indian films) and these films have done well. Immediately, I can think of films like Dayavan, Ek Duje Ke Liye etc. that were re-made and were successful.

If the inspiration is genuinely adapted to Indian situations, then I agree that it would be unfair to call them 'copy.

However, if the inspiration is nothing but just a copy of another Hollywood flick, then I dont know any other word to use besides "copy".

In my next few posts, I will deal with movies that were good inspirations from Hollywood flicks and the movies that were shamelessly copied from Hollywood.

As an aside, just a thought before I part. Is the art of making an original movie lost? Unfortunately, there are very few film-makers today who make films on an original idea.