Seems like Sandalwood is short of original local scripts what with many movies looking global and west of India for inspiration. Of late, many Kannada films are taking ideas from Hollywood and Bollywood films as many remakes have been making waves in Sandalwood.
Big stars and directors are not taking any risk with original scripts and playing it safe by taking up tested scripts, implementing them according to their nativity.
Recent example is Om Prakash’s film, Shiva. The director made his job easy by getting inspired by sequences or scenes from four to five films, which he mixed to make a single film.
“This is happening as people are getting exposed to various kinds of social networks and media. The acceptance seem to be pretty high and we see a lot of similarity between each film. In fact the audience who are aware of world cinema, still enjoy going to films and make it a hit,” said Santosh, a movie buff. He added, “Since taking remake rights are becoming quite costly, which almost comes to `35 lakhs or more, directors take a leaf out of a particular film and do it according to the regional nativity.”
While we saw Charulatha getting its inspiration from a Thai film, Alone, it is rumoured that Darshan starrer Chingari, directed by Harsha, was inspired by Hollywood film, Takers. It has also been reported that Soori took the concept for his film Jackie from a Korean film Trade while Upendra starrer Aarakashaka was inspired by Hollywood film, Shutter Island.
The list doesn’t end here. Another film of Darshan titled Sarathi was more or less inspired by the film Lion King. There are also a few directors who vouch by Hollywood films and do not mind getting inspired from them. Well known director, Shankar’s Robot was more or less a concept of Will Smith starrer Robot, which was a big hit.
The film was done according to Indian nativity and it was a blockbuster hit here. Ramgopal Varma had even given credit to a Hollywood film, Godfather for Sarkar.
Telugu director Puri Jagganath was inspired by Transporter and did Businessman in Telugu taking Mahesh Babu in the lead.
“People want entertainment and they are not bothered if it is a remake or an original script. People are more often inspired by real life incidents and they don’t mind watching it in the language, they understand,” said director Shivamani.
“Original thought process is a labourious task. It is an easy escape for few directors to have readymade concept as they can also get away from the copyright mess. Very few are trying to give straight subjects as they can’t waste the hero’s dates. In order to make a film in a short span of time, they have to only look around for inspirational subjects,” the director said, adding, “One should not blame only the directors. Even writers, music directors and choreographers are taking the same route. For some it works out easy and nobody will question.”
It is not just Sandalwood. In fact a lot of sequences of Ghajini were copied from a Hollywood film Memento. But people have still watched the film and have made it a big hit and it was also later remade in many languages.
“With this trend, the director’s reputation will definitely come down from the audience point of view. These days people are looking for fast food and are not ready to take time to eat a good meal, similarly films are also going on the same lines,” said director Srinivas Raju.