Original stories have never been the forte of Bollywood, which has seen countless Hollywood remakes over the years (The last one being the all-star cast Players).
Now it seems Sandalwood is also turning to the West for inspiration. Rumour has it that the new Darshan-starrer Chingari releasing today is based on Liam Neeson-starrer Taken.
Another example is the recent Upendra-starrer Aarakshaka, which is allegedly based on Leonardo DiCaprio’s Shutter Island. What do our industry insiders have to say about this?
Filmmaker P. Vasu, who wrote the story, script and directed Aarakshaka, states, “I never saw Shutter Island until after I had made this movie. I agree the protagonist as a cop and the backdrop of a mental asylum are similar, but my story is different.”
The cop also happens to have amnesia, and doctors try to treat his psychological condition — more coincidences? But Vasu adds, “There is nothing wrong in doing remakes or taking inspiration from a film. In fact I had bought the rights to Manichitratazhu and remade it in Kannada and Tamil.”
Chingari director A. Harsha, who has also penned the script of the film, denies drawing inspiration from the West. “I have not revealed the story before the release, except for a one-line premise. This was because the star of the movie is its screenplay.” The premise of a cop on a mission to bring down the mafia over a period of just a few days, does ring a few bells though.
According to actor Prajwal Devaraj, “Remakes are becoming common in the industry, though one can’t deny that two people can have the same story idea.”
He adds, “When I was doing Bhadra, which was a remake of Ranam, it was so tough because it was somebody else’s film that I had to do in a better way. There’s a lot of pressure and it kills your way of thinking, your way of acting. Being in this profession I can’t say no, but nothing beats an original script.”
Film buff Sanjana Sriram agrees, saying, “Whenever a filmmaker takes ‘inspiration’ from an international film, it happens to be a well known film and the audience is definitely going to compare the two. That’s what I was doing the whole time while watching Aarakshaka. So I personally think it’s best if they don’t even try.”