'DDLJ and Rangeela set the tone in the 1990s'

Cine critic and commentator Anupama Chopra's First Day First Show is a telling chronicle of the stardom, drama, hype and struggle, prevalent in the Hindi film industry from 1993 to 2010

Anupama Chopra is playing multi-tasker before she leaves for the Cannes Film Festival. In between last-minute calls and list checks, she finds time for a quick chat about her new book, First Day First Show: Writings from the Bollywood Trenches. She's excited about this book. It is an exhaustive, engaging chronicle of the change that swept Hindi cinema for twenty years since the time she began writing about it in its many shades and hues, in front of the camera and behind the scenes.u00a0



"The change in the industry is most obvious when we look at the money angle. Back in 1993-'94, film budgets were in the region of Rs 2 crores, while Rs 40 lakh was the price tag for actors. It seems comical today -- even costume budgets don't fall in that range," she chuckles. "The chapter on Scriptwriters (Cool Copycats) is most interesting because it tells you how much and how little has changed in context with film scripts!" she says of one of her favourite chapters in the book.u00a0 "It's terrific to go back in time and read from the 1990s, when the younger generation of directors, including Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra, were making giant strides.

The industry was blossoming with films like Rangeela and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, which set the tone. It was great to get a ringside view of the film industry." But Anupama isn't too sure if the coming years will witness much change in Hindi cinema -- "I doubt it. The most drastic evolution took place from 1993 to 2010." We'll believe.

Excerpts from First Day First Showu00a0> Scriptwriters: Cool Copycats
Scene: Inside a three-star Mumbai hotel. A Hindi film producer enters one of the hotel rooms. There is a TV, a VCR, 200-odd video tapes and two scriptwriters in the room. Cut to a close-up of the producer's sweaty face.
Producer to writers: I have dates for Jackie Shroff, Juhi Chawla and Anupam Kher. Can you give me something?
Writer A pulls out a print of Casablanca: This is your film.
Producer: We need action. Jackie hai to film mein fight bhi honi chahiye.
Writer A: Exactly. We will put in a twist. The second half will be Die Hard.
Writer B: Both were hits.
The producer beams, the two writers glow as another successful day is over. Welcome to modern-day moviemaking in Mumbai. Scriptwriters no longer put on their thinking caps to come up with original story ideas. They take the shortest cut possible: straight lifting from Hollywood movies. Over 90 per cent of the Hindi movies currently in production are either remakes of Hollywood blockbusters, Hong Kong films, older Hindi movies or a khichdi of everything. Some of the films are frame-by-frame copies of successful films while other moviemakers lift some of the scenes from different films, put them in some semblance of order and then pass them off as their own. Writers check with each other to ensure that all don't steal from the same source. Blatant plagiarism is the new name of the game in Bollywood. "

Take a look at some of the biggest box office hits in the recent past. Mahesh Bhatt's Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin was an unabashed copy of the famous Clark Gable-starrer It Happened One Night. Everything, right down to the popular hitch-hiking scene, was taken from the Hollywood original. But the box office couldn't care less: it gave the movie a resounding thumbs-up. Similarly, Aziz Mirza's Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman was simply a rehash of Raj Kapoor's Shree 420. Yet it walked away with the 1992 Filmfare Award for Best Original Screenplay legitimizing the copycats' profession.

The list of lifts is endless. Sadak, the mega-hit with Sanjay Dutt, was a patchwork quilt of scenes picked from Taxi Driver, Lethal Weapon and Cyborg. The most blatant example was the sequence where a raging Dutt sticks a revolver against his forehead just like Mel Gibson did in the Lethal Weapon series. Then, there was the pre-title sequence in Aankhen, in which Radha Seth breaks into a jewellery store to shoot at all the glass including the chandelier -- clearly stolen from Beverly Hills Cop.

With plagiarism paying well at the box office, the copycat scriptwriters are flourishing. Leading the pack is the team of Robin Bhatt, Sujit Sen and Javed Siddiqui. The trio, often joined by actor-writer Akash Khurana, have created -- together or individually -- blockbusters such as -- Sadak, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, Saathi and Aashiqui. They charge between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for a film and are currently writing for Mahesh Bhatt, Ramesh Sippy, Rahul Rawail and Prakash Jha. Their sources are as varied as Regarding Henry, Roman Holiday and Hong Kong director John Woo's films. They are also trying to crack the recent Robert Redford hit Indecent Proposal and Frank Capra's immortal classic It's a Wonderful Life.

The team has no qualms about the fact that their scripts are copies. They've even ordered a Rs 13,000 software called Plots Unlimited, which generates thousands of combinations from a database of plot fragments. Sen confesses that some of their stories are cobbled together from other films: 'We are not bothered with creativity. Call us cobblers or artists, it's not our problem.' Robin Bhatt, in fact, says that he watches a film a day and wouldn't think twice about lifting an entire film: 'There is nothing original under the sun. My talent lies in knowing what to steal and weaving it in such a way that it appeals to everyone from Mumbai to Jhumritelaiya. The final aim is to put the ball through the goalpost.'

Other writers, though more coy, also confess to some copying. Rajiv Kaul and Praful Parekh, the duo behind hits such as Dil and Beta, say they borrow only 2 to 3 per cent. Writer Sachin Bhaumick is working on a script for Yash Chopra which he says is inspired by Sabrina. Honey Irani says she was motivated to write Darr after seeing Dead Calm. Even Javed Akhtar admits to taking scenes and sequences from foreign films but never an entire story. Director Mahesh Bhatt has almost perfected copying into a fine celluloid art. He admits: 'I don't believe in intellectual property. I'm a reactor, not a creator. I just recycle images that are fed into my brain.' He doesn't just stop at copying scenes; he even steals from posters.

The publicity poster of his telefilm for Zee TV, Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi, was a copy of the Basic Instinct poster. Even though he got a nasty letter from Columbia Pictures for it, the director is unaffected: 'I liked the poster, I stole it, I got caught, no problem.' Though copying is nothing new in Bollywood, the reason for the recent spate of celluloid clones is simple. Experimentation means risk and audiences are just not willing to accept anything new. As a result, scriptwriters and directors don't want to take a chance. A string of flops -- all based on original stories -- has only added to the insecurity in the industry. Yash Chopra's Lamhe, for instance, which had an unusual storyline, failed miserably at the box office. Even Raj Kumar Santoshi's Damini, 1993's most original film, only picked up business after it became tax-free. The most insecure naturally are the people created and destroyed every Friday --u00a0 the stars --u00a0u00a0 who, therefore, actively encourage copying.

The economics of film-making hardly allows anybody to take a risk. Today, all A-grade films cost between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 2 crore. While the costs are rising, the success rate is low -- only one out of ten films released covers its cost. As Bhaumick says, 'You could find someone who says, "Here, take Rs 20 lakh and make a different film." But you'll never find anyone who says, "Here's Rs one crore, be original."' Adds Javed Akhtar, 'The definition of a good writer here is a person who gives the producer a brand new script that has been done before.'

Directors and scriptwriters have their own explanations for the lack of originality in today's movies. Each side tends to blame the other. For instance, director Yash Chopra says, 'There are no writers. I've been looking, for the past eight to nine months, for an original script. And I'm not asking for something great. After all we are only making nursery rhymes.' Santoshi says since he couldn't find a writer who can deliver the goods, he's taken to writing his own stories and dialogues.

The writers, predictably, have a different point of view. They say their hands are tied; they have to churn out scripts that don't deviate from the tried-and-tested formula. As Javed Akhtar says, 'We have made cast-iron perimeters that all movies must have all the ingredients of commercial cinema. So, our stories must be submissive enough for these ingredients to enter.' Today, with the satellite invasion, plagiarism has received a new lease of life. Scriptwriters suddenly have the best -- and the worst -- of Hollywood right there in their living rooms. But then that's another story.

August 1993. This article is reproduced with the kind permission of India Today.

Excerpted with permission from Penguin Books India from First Day First Show: Writings from the Bollywood Trenches, by Anupama Chopra, Penguin, Rs 499. Available at leading bookstores