Bollywood and Plagiarism

Some say creativity pays!.. some toil hard for it.. some work there way around it!.. Right from the ancient times when man was still rubbing stones for fire!.. the need and the knack for creativity always existed!... but alas!.. it was so much that the very dear man ran outta ideas!.. right from scribbling about hunting of animals to the modern day graffiti of human culture and words not worth mentioning here.. everywhere we see creativity in some form or another!..

I live in India!.. a country with a long history of creativity and academic brilliance!.. apart from its various diverse cultures and architectural wonders there is another "industry" that kind of resides in hearts of each and every individual of this country!.. i am talking about bollywood!.. the place where dreams come true!.. the place where glamor is just something which comes with fame and money!.. Long since its inception!... a good 80 years before!.. there was this creativity and cinematic brilliance which kind of made the people of this country hungry for more.. and kind of ruled everyone's fate!.. beautiful actresses and immaculate sets kept people in that fantasy zone!.. a place so incredible and a place oozing with so much creativity that it pulled artists from far and wide to try their luck in this wonderful dreamland!..

But alas!.. as we all say!.. good thing don't last for long!.. right from the unofficial nomenclature of the film making industry as "bollywood".. which was of course conceived from the west.."hollywood".. our film makers have resort to making films with only commercial success in mind!.. i recently happened to see a documentary about bollywood!.. with subjects of its stories taken right from the phase of time it existed!.. like pre- independence it showed more of patriotic content!.. post independence it showed the struggles of the developing economy which had been crippled by the british imperialists!.. Anyways!.. as the years passed!.. showed more content with people especially the youth frustrated by the curruption and the system!... our bollywood really didn't have any dearth in topics to pick and make a feature film outta it!.. but as always when we ran outta ideas.. we resort to a simple and a supposedly hassle free idea of plagiarism. Film institutes like "whistling wood".. or FTII.. are not churning out the best of the lot i suppose!.. where are the Naseeruddin Shah's or Om puri's..

Never had been bollywood so often accused of plagiarism.. recently its been in the "breaking news" too!... with the Roshans literally ripping a storyline and soundtrack to make a feature film!... sheersh!.. I cant see a reason to "copy" and "paste" when we have a billion people in this country!.. whom are they trying to fool!.. making out of court settlements won't bring originality!.. i don't really see a reason for all this!.. i mean come on.. we are talking about a country with a population of a billion people!.. just aping the west won't do any good!.. but since this formula has a reasonable amount of success attached to it!.. no wonder more and more directers are turning towards it!.. nowadays cinema is just more of a slam bam thank u mam!.. a bitter mix of masala served with a topping of plagiarism.. commercial success comes because cinema goers have little to turn to!.. wonder thats why the CBSE is thinking of including whole feature films (original ones) to their syllabus!.. a rare commodity i suppose!..

Well.. anyways i am not that much of a movie lover myself!.. so cant really comment a lot about the recent trend of plagiarism.. But we do need a "army" of original thinkers and creative people to stop "bollywood" ape the west!.. Bollywood should be something the common individual of this country identifies himself/herself!... not something that just goes on aping the bollywood and in some cases making a scene to scene copy of a successful feature film!... shame on you bollywood for this trend.. down with plagiarism.. oops!.. did i just go over the board!!?!?... nah!.. i just borrowed lines from the recent eye grabber from the writer guild strike of hollywood!... ;-)