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Ep 31- It’s a CAAAAPY, Yaar!- Remakes, Adaptations and Straight Lifts in Bollywood

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With the release of Murder 2 and Singham, message boards and twitter timelines are rife with calling out movie makers as lazy thiefs and intellectual hacks. Bollywood has always had a rich tradition of playing fast in loose with it’s ‘inpirations’ so Upodcast decided to take on this subject head on with our unique view of the world of Hindi Film and music industry and accompanied by an esteemed panel of sharpshooter bloggers, we give you the discussion to end all discussions. Check out our take on Remakes, Adaptations and Straight Lifts in Bollywood!

This week we are joined by FilmiGirl, The Bollywood Fan and Rumi from the Roti Kapada Aur Rum Blog.  You can follow all of them on twitter! They are tons of fun.

A small correction, We did call the Episode 32 in our excitement but you’ll have to wait a little for that one and there might be some small background noises for the first couple of minutes that are resolved really quickly, apologies for that.

ShowNotes:

  • Intro
  • General Thoughts on Remakes
  • Who get’s a pass and who doesn’t?
  • Remakes, Adaptations and Straight Lifts
  • Outcry By the Public
  • The Biggest Culprits in Bollywood
  • Is it sometimes justified to rip off a story?
  • It happens in music too
  • Movies that should/ could be remade
  • Outro

Here is one of the Pritam Music inspirations video’s we spoke about.

 

And here is a video that shows that even the greatest directors regularly get inspired!

Everything Is A Remix: KILL BILL from robgwilson.com on Vimeo.

(a side by side comparision of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill and it’s inspirations)

 

You can follow the writings of our guest on their blogs!

Filmigirl’s Blog

The Bollywood Fan’s Blog

Roti Kapada Aur Rum’s blog

 

Let us know what you though of the podcast in the comment section below! Or subscribe to us in Itunes!Enhanced by Zemanta

7 thoughts on “Ep 31- It’s a CAAAAPY, Yaar!- Remakes, Adaptations and Straight Lifts in Bollywood”

  1. Pingback: All the influences in the Matrix- Everything is a Remix | Upodcasting- Under Promise Over Deliver

  2. Excellent stuff guys!!! You reminded me of how many “caaaapies” and adaptations I actually love – even my favorite movie of ALL-TIME, Sippy Films’ Satte Pe Satta (Amitabh/Hema Malini) is loosely based on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I loved a lot of those 90s ones mentioned, Aamir’s string of them – JJWS, Ghulam, Akele Hum Akele Tum, and Rum, Yeh Dillagi was one of my favorite movies too! There are a lot of times that I watch American films and think – this would be an excellent Hindi film!

    Since I’m a regular watcher of Tamil films too, I’ve watched soooo many of these films translated to Hindi. Sometimes it works – like the Mani Rathnam films (Roja, Saathiya which was Alaipayuthe in Tamil, Sadma which was Moondram Pirai in Tamil), and sometimes it fails miserably for me; The Gentleman with Chiranjeevi and Juhi, which was the excellent Gentleman in Tamil … Bhool Bhulaiya which totally couldn’t compare to the Tamil version Chandramukhi for me (I’m sorry, Akshay can never be Rajnikanth), Rehnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein which was Madhavan’s adorable film Minnale in Tamil, and so many others. Also a bunch of those cheesy 80s Sridevi-Jeetendra movies that I loved (Himmatwala, Mawaali, Justice Choudhary, Tohfa) were originally Tamil/Telugu movies, which I didn’t even know! Same goes for many of the David Dhawan-Govinda movies in the 90s (which I haven’t seen a lot of, but I’ve probably seen the Tamil version). I thought Ghajini worked great in both languages, and loved Wanted when I had only just mildly enjoyed Pokiri in Tamil (that could be the Sallu-fangirl in me though).

    Sometimes for me, the decision to watch the remake is really dependent on the actors they choose – I have no interest in Singham because I don’t care for Ajay Devgan and can’t imagine he’d be able to compare to Surya. I am APPALLED by the idea of John Abraham and Genelia D’Souza attempting to take on the remake of the EXCELLENT film Kaakha Kaakha, which featured Surya and his now-wife Jyothika (Nagma from Baaghi’s sister). Most of the time anyone trying to remake a Rajnikanth film will fail for me.

    What I DON’T like is this trend of remaking films that were hits only a few decades ago … like Don (which I liked, don’t get me wrong, but still didn’t feel it was necessary) and Agneepath. I am horrified that Sanjay Dutt is remaking Satte Pe Satta.

    As for the music, it seems like everyone copies great music from the Telugu industry, with the one exception being Rahman for Tamil music. But Rehman tends to dub his own music into Hindi, so no one can really copy him. With Rehman’s dubs, a lot of times the language I heard it in first tends to stick with me. So Roja, Thiruda Thiruda, Kaadhalan, Gentleman, etc. feel kind of sacred to me in Tamil. Mostly I feel like his music is written for Tamil language, so the Hindi lyrics often sound like they don’t FIT right in the phrases.

    Rajesh Roshan has SHAMELESSLY lifted tunes for AGES, and he seems to get away with it all the time. Same with Anu Malik and now the latest guy to do it is Pritam. But then there are songs that you KNOW are lifted and yet they become iconic in the B’wood sphere … songs like Oye Oye (Tridev), Tamma Tamma Loge (Thanedaar) and Jhumma Chumma (Hum), Aate Jaate (Maine Pyar Kiya), etc. (there’s far more than that, but I have early 90s music on the brain). It’s like you KNOW they’re doing it, but sometimes the song is so fun you’re like Who cares?! 🙂

    Ok I’m blabbering. I have more to say but I gotta go … I’ll try to come back and comment more later. Keep up the great work you guys! XOXO

    Anandini

    1. Thanks for the comment Amaluu! Yes it defintely illustrates the point that some actors and directos get a pass and some don’t. And i worry about Force too as you can read in our Force Trailer Breakdown on the blog. I just feel John is the kind of guy that books a manicure after punching a guy.

  3. Thank you all for a fascinating discussion. It has reinforced my  strong distaste for podcasting, though. So many interesting comments and opinions that I would have loved to respond to, but it’s just too hard to scroll back & forth through the recording to find the phrases that made me want to reply. So, even though it was frustrating to think, “oh, I’d like to respond to that, but can’t”, thank you all very, very much for a lively exchange, and lots of interesting points of view to think about.

    1. Hi Max, well thanks for listening in any case and sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy it as much. You can always write up a longer comment here or send us an email and we’ll gladly read it on the show. Would love to hear your thoughts on the topic in any case.

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