The fondly held belief in the Hindi movie trade that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery isn’t likely to be abandoned anytime soon. But it is certainly under reconsideration.
Hindi filmmakers are notorious for filching story ideas, scenes, characters, jokes, filming techniques, costumes, tunes, choreography styles and whole movies from other cinematic traditions. Movie lore has it that certain filmmakers advise screenplay writers to find inspiration in foreign DVD collections rather than in reality. But some producers are putting ethical business practices into place. Mindful of international lawsuits (a growing possibility as Bollywood spreads its footprint across the globe) and criticism about the absence of a creative culture, they are not only seeking out material from other cultures, they are actually paying for it.
Recent years have seen a steady stream of Hindi versions of Tamil and Telugu action comedies, including Bodyguard, Ready, Kick, Holiday and the upcoming Tevar. More unusual is the Indianised foreign film. The recent action thriller Bang Bang! was an officially sanctioned remake of Knight and Day (they share the same producer studio).
With a view to intensifying this trend, the Mumbai Film Festival this week will host a Films Remakes Market to bring together French producers with movies to hawk and Indian filmmakers with the money to buy them. The MFF event is being organised by Deborah Benattar’s company La Fabrique Films, and will screen six romantic comedies and light-hearted dramas. On the list are Homeland, In the Courtyard, Not My Type, Superchondriac, Serial (Bad) Weddings and Where Do We Go Now?
Local interest
“We produce close to 200 films a year in France, and many of these films, especially comedies and thrillers, can be looked at for remakes,” Benatter said. “We are looking at new films as well as classics.” Already, two producers are competing for the rights of Where Do We Go Now? since its story of a Lebanese village divided between Muslim and Christian residents can easily be adapted anywhere in the world, she added.
The successful producer-director combination behind In the Courtyard, Philippe Martin and Pierre Salvadori, who will be in Mumbai for the event, has already sold the rights of three of their collaborations to Hindi producers. Apres Vous (After You) was remade as Nautanki Saala! last year, Hors de Prix (Priceless) has been optioned by Dharma Productions, while the Hindi remake of De vrais mensonges (Beautiful Lies) is currently being filmed by Ramesh Sippy.
His company, Ramesh Sippy Entertainment, which co-produced Nautanki Saala!, had picked up Apres Vous after a similar such event organised in Mumbai in 2011 by the international production and distribution company Wild Bunch. “The film reminded me of a Hrishkesh Mukherjee comedy – it had fun characters and the right concepts at a writing level,” said the film’s director, Rohan Sippy. “When you are looking for remakes, you look for concepts that you recast in an Indian way.”
There is nothing to stop Indian producers from directly contacting their counterparts in other countries, but there is also no guarantee that they will be making a strong case for themselves or reaching the right people, Benattar said. “It is possible to contact people directly if you are interested, but sometimes, French producers will receive emails from Indian filmmakers they know nothing about,” she said. “And sometimes, it can get very difficult to figure out who has the remake rights.”
New concepts
There is enough of an appetite for new concepts and treatments among Hindi filmmakers to justify Azure Entertainment’s decision to buy the remake rights of 11 international films from countries as diverse as South Korea, Denmark, Panama and Argentina. “We are looking at universal stories that are language agnostic,” said Sunir Kheterpal, the company’s founder and chief executive officer. Azure has the rights for such films as the French thriller Point Blank and the Argentinean comedy A Boyfriend for My Wife. “We are in the business of picking up stories, and it doesn’t matter what cast or language or country they are from,” Kheterpal said. “You are looking for a story that can be adapted and can excite potential directors.”
Rocky Handsome, the Hindi remake of the Korean vendetta drama The Man From Nowhere, is currently being filmed by Nishikant Kamat and is expected to be released next May, Kheterpal said. Tigmanshu Dhulia is adapting the French mob movie Les Lyonnais as Yaara. “Sometimes, you get a film and you take it to a director, sometimes you develop it with an actor in mind, and sometimes, you develop the film yourself and involve a director later,” Kheterpal explained.
Among the local producers who has jumped into the official remake group is Balaji Telefilms, which has the Indian remake rights of the Japanese thriller The Devotion of Suspect X. Ekta Kapoor’s company arrived a bit too late on the scene – ‘’S bestseller movie has already “unofficially” inspired the Malayalam hit Drishyam. There are reports that Balaji has slapped a copyright violation case against the Malayalam producers – a curious case of bolting the stable door after the horse has disappeared from view.
The international remake model might succeed where foreign film distribution has failed. Several efforts have been made to commercially exhibit international titles in India, on television channels such as World Movies and the short-lived NDTV Lumiere, through theatrical distribution and on DVD. They have floundered for several reasons. To begin with, they are subject to censorship, which robs of them of their appeal. Indian movie-goers by and large are not excited at the thought of watching films in strange languages with subtitles. Local audiences seek a good story and the comfort of familiarity, which can be better served by retooling a smart idea from an international production rather than importing the original wholesale.
More lucrative business
Foreign producers are also beginning to realise that the market for remake rights is far more lucrative than selling Indian release rights, Benattar said. “Remake rights for Hindi and other languages can cost between Rs 25 lakh and Rs one crore, whereas a film like The Artist would not fetch more than 10,000 euros for distribution,” she pointed out.
It’s not always easy to translate another culture’s nuances, but Bollywood has many filmmakers who have done so with great success in the past. Ek Villain’s director, Mohit Suri, has been hired by Dharma Productions and Sikhya Entertainment to produce the Hindi version of The Intouchables, a French race relations comedy about a sophisticated quadriplegic and his street-smart Senegalese helper. One of the biggest hits of 2007, Bheja Fry, ripped off the French comedy Le Diner De Cons. Nishikant Kamat’s Marathi-language Dombivali Fast was loosely adapted from Hollywood’s Falling Down, while his Hindi-language Mumbai Meri Jaan was a reworking of Crash.
Bollywood has no shortage of talented photocopiers. Original and intelligent writing remains a hit and miss affair. Rehashing material that has worked elsewhere fits neatly in the middle. It’s still a copy, but at least it has been certified.
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Hindi filmmakers are notorious for filching story ideas, scenes, characters, jokes, filming techniques, costumes, tunes, choreography styles and whole movies from other cinematic traditions. Movie lore has it that certain filmmakers advise screenplay writers to find inspiration in foreign DVD collections rather than in reality. But some producers are putting ethical business practices into place. Mindful of international lawsuits (a growing possibility as Bollywood spreads its footprint across the globe) and criticism about the absence of a creative culture, they are not only seeking out material from other cultures, they are actually paying for it.
Recent years have seen a steady stream of Hindi versions of Tamil and Telugu action comedies, including Bodyguard, Ready, Kick, Holiday and the upcoming Tevar. More unusual is the Indianised foreign film. The recent action thriller Bang Bang! was an officially sanctioned remake of Knight and Day (they share the same producer studio).
With a view to intensifying this trend, the Mumbai Film Festival this week will host a Films Remakes Market to bring together French producers with movies to hawk and Indian filmmakers with the money to buy them. The MFF event is being organised by Deborah Benattar’s company La Fabrique Films, and will screen six romantic comedies and light-hearted dramas. On the list are Homeland, In the Courtyard, Not My Type, Superchondriac, Serial (Bad) Weddings and Where Do We Go Now?
Local interest
“We produce close to 200 films a year in France, and many of these films, especially comedies and thrillers, can be looked at for remakes,” Benatter said. “We are looking at new films as well as classics.” Already, two producers are competing for the rights of Where Do We Go Now? since its story of a Lebanese village divided between Muslim and Christian residents can easily be adapted anywhere in the world, she added.
The successful producer-director combination behind In the Courtyard, Philippe Martin and Pierre Salvadori, who will be in Mumbai for the event, has already sold the rights of three of their collaborations to Hindi producers. Apres Vous (After You) was remade as Nautanki Saala! last year, Hors de Prix (Priceless) has been optioned by Dharma Productions, while the Hindi remake of De vrais mensonges (Beautiful Lies) is currently being filmed by Ramesh Sippy.
His company, Ramesh Sippy Entertainment, which co-produced Nautanki Saala!, had picked up Apres Vous after a similar such event organised in Mumbai in 2011 by the international production and distribution company Wild Bunch. “The film reminded me of a Hrishkesh Mukherjee comedy – it had fun characters and the right concepts at a writing level,” said the film’s director, Rohan Sippy. “When you are looking for remakes, you look for concepts that you recast in an Indian way.”
There is nothing to stop Indian producers from directly contacting their counterparts in other countries, but there is also no guarantee that they will be making a strong case for themselves or reaching the right people, Benattar said. “It is possible to contact people directly if you are interested, but sometimes, French producers will receive emails from Indian filmmakers they know nothing about,” she said. “And sometimes, it can get very difficult to figure out who has the remake rights.”
New concepts
There is enough of an appetite for new concepts and treatments among Hindi filmmakers to justify Azure Entertainment’s decision to buy the remake rights of 11 international films from countries as diverse as South Korea, Denmark, Panama and Argentina. “We are looking at universal stories that are language agnostic,” said Sunir Kheterpal, the company’s founder and chief executive officer. Azure has the rights for such films as the French thriller Point Blank and the Argentinean comedy A Boyfriend for My Wife. “We are in the business of picking up stories, and it doesn’t matter what cast or language or country they are from,” Kheterpal said. “You are looking for a story that can be adapted and can excite potential directors.”
Rocky Handsome, the Hindi remake of the Korean vendetta drama The Man From Nowhere, is currently being filmed by Nishikant Kamat and is expected to be released next May, Kheterpal said. Tigmanshu Dhulia is adapting the French mob movie Les Lyonnais as Yaara. “Sometimes, you get a film and you take it to a director, sometimes you develop it with an actor in mind, and sometimes, you develop the film yourself and involve a director later,” Kheterpal explained.
Among the local producers who has jumped into the official remake group is Balaji Telefilms, which has the Indian remake rights of the Japanese thriller The Devotion of Suspect X. Ekta Kapoor’s company arrived a bit too late on the scene – ‘’S bestseller movie has already “unofficially” inspired the Malayalam hit Drishyam. There are reports that Balaji has slapped a copyright violation case against the Malayalam producers – a curious case of bolting the stable door after the horse has disappeared from view.
The international remake model might succeed where foreign film distribution has failed. Several efforts have been made to commercially exhibit international titles in India, on television channels such as World Movies and the short-lived NDTV Lumiere, through theatrical distribution and on DVD. They have floundered for several reasons. To begin with, they are subject to censorship, which robs of them of their appeal. Indian movie-goers by and large are not excited at the thought of watching films in strange languages with subtitles. Local audiences seek a good story and the comfort of familiarity, which can be better served by retooling a smart idea from an international production rather than importing the original wholesale.
More lucrative business
Foreign producers are also beginning to realise that the market for remake rights is far more lucrative than selling Indian release rights, Benattar said. “Remake rights for Hindi and other languages can cost between Rs 25 lakh and Rs one crore, whereas a film like The Artist would not fetch more than 10,000 euros for distribution,” she pointed out.
It’s not always easy to translate another culture’s nuances, but Bollywood has many filmmakers who have done so with great success in the past. Ek Villain’s director, Mohit Suri, has been hired by Dharma Productions and Sikhya Entertainment to produce the Hindi version of The Intouchables, a French race relations comedy about a sophisticated quadriplegic and his street-smart Senegalese helper. One of the biggest hits of 2007, Bheja Fry, ripped off the French comedy Le Diner De Cons. Nishikant Kamat’s Marathi-language Dombivali Fast was loosely adapted from Hollywood’s Falling Down, while his Hindi-language Mumbai Meri Jaan was a reworking of Crash.
Bollywood has no shortage of talented photocopiers. Original and intelligent writing remains a hit and miss affair. Rehashing material that has worked elsewhere fits neatly in the middle. It’s still a copy, but at least it has been certified.