Hollywood movies which were copied from Bollywood!

By Shikha Chaudhry

Edited by Anish Chakraborty

Aug 31, 2017

04:56 pm

What's the story

Inspired, plagiarized, official remake, unofficial remake - these are some of the words that are used when a Bollywood movie plot closely mimics that of a Hollywood production. However, before playing the blame game, one should know that it's not a one-way street. There have been several instances where our movies' stories have been 'borrowed' and made into big-budget Hollywood films. Here's more.

Julius Nagendranath

A good story never gets old, it seems

Choti Si Baat, released in 1975, had Amol Palekar learning the ropes of wooing his lady love from a "romance specialist" aka Julius Nagendranath, played by Ashok Kumar. In 2005, Will Smith's Hitch had the same plot - a "date doctor" helping out a bumbling man. We took it back, in 2007, with Salman and Govinda starrer Partner, where Bhaijan played the "love guru."

Jab We Met

Imtiaz's first big hit

Imtiaz Ali desperately needed a hit movie post his box-office disasters like Socha Na Tha and Ahista Ahista. The result was Jab We Met. Despite Shahid and Kareena's relationship going sour, this 2007 movie was a stupendous hit with quirky dialogues like, "Mein apni favorite hoon." The movie Leap Year, which came out in 2010, had Hollywood applying the same formula.

Thriller

k…kkk…kkk….kiraaaaaaan

Yash Chopra's 1993 Indian psychological-romantic thriller Darr sent chills down the spine of the audience, as they watched Shah Rukh Khan's on-screen psychotic persona terrorizing Juhi Chawla in the name of love. Mark Wahlberg as David walked the same road from adoration to obsession in Fear, released in 1996, while chasing Reese Witherspoon's character Nicole. It's good but then again, we did it first.

Naseeruddin Shah

A stellar movie

2008 thriller, A Wednesday, had two stalwarts pitted against each other. At one end we had Naseeruddin Shah, playing the common man and at the other, we had Anupam Kher trying to rein in the chaos that ensued. The narrative of 2013 American-Sri Lankan thriller film, A Common Man, was uncannily similar, where Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley played the role of Naseeruddin Shah.

Vicky Donor

A recent gem

Ayushmann Khurrana struck gold with his debut movie, Shoojit Sircar's Vicky Donor. The engaging story of a Punjabi boy, from Lajpat Nagar, becoming a sperm donor not only earned praises from critics but had the cash registers ringing in movie halls. This 2012 movie formula was repeated the very next year in Hollywood's Delivery Man. Surprisingly, this Vince Vaughn comedy wasn't a big hit.

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