Although YouTube may tell us otherwise; Bollywood isn’t composed entirely of movies where the protagonist can flip a semi with the touch of his hand and then kill five guys with one bullet, all while making out with a chick. It’s actually a reputable industry with normal, sane movies. However, for every five Bollywood movies, there are two that are YouTube worthy, two of them which flop, and the one successful one is usually a Hollywood rip-off. What more can you expect from an industry that can’t think up its own name?
Here are 10 Bollywood mega-hits with ridiculously familiar plots.
10. Bonnie and Clyde: Bunty Aur Babli
The romantic tale of Bonnie and Clyde has captivated audiences since they hit the big screen in 1967. It isn’t unexpected for there to be some copying of the tale considering its success. But we must say Bollywood’s take on the story is pretty original considering the source material they had to work with. Although, the film didn’t pass up the opportunity to give their characters funny little names (Bunty and Babli aren’t real names in Hindi, white people). The movie was made even more hilarious since it starred the protagonist’s real life father as the primary villain, leading to all sorts of inside jokes only people in India got.
The Hollywood Plot: Bonnie and Clyde meet up while trying to escape their small town life. They run a number of small cons before really getting busy. Their thefts get the attention of the law enforcement who hounds them relentlessly. Finally, one of their former partners sells them out and Bonnie and Clyde are surrounded and well, killed.
The Bollywood Plot: Rakesh and Vimmi meet up while trying to escape their small town life. After successfully running a con on someone that screwed them both, they discover that they have a gift. After running more and more elaborate cons (such as selling the Taj Mahal), they attract the attention of a cop who makes it his goal to apprehend them. Finally, after a risky con the duo are surrounded. However, they are let go on the promise that they stop stealing stuff (because asking nicely always works).
9. Hitch: Partner
Hitch was that Will Smith movie that just made everyone awkward. So, its baffling when you consider that Bollywood decided it was ripe material for ripping. Oh, and maybe it has something to do with the $175 million it grossed worldwide.
The Hollywood Plot: Alex is a professional date doctor who match-makes people into good relationships. This all changes when he meets the one girl he can’t get; a pretty gossip columnist. After trying to woo her with every trick in his book, he eventually just acts like himself and wins her over.
The Bollywood Plot: Prem is a “love guru” who helps people out by matchmaking them with seemingly the perfect person. This all changes when he meets the one woman he can’t get, a single widowed mother. After some hilarious misunderstandings involving one night stands, Prem gets the girl.
8. What Happens in Vegas: Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu
This 2012 smash hit stars Bollywood veteran Karina Kapoor and newcomer Imran Khan in what is arguably the “Party Frat Guys” genre of Bollywood movies. Bear in mind this movie came out as recently as Valentine’s Day weekend.
The Hollywood Plot: The movie takes place in Las Vegas where Jack and Joy have wee too many drinks at a club and end up getting married. They realize that they have 3 million dollars and the only way to claim it is by kicking the other out of the marriage. In the end, they decide they want to keep their marriage.
The Bollywood Plot: The movie takes place in Las Vegas where Rahul and Riana have way too many drinks at a club and end up getting married. In the morning, they realize their mistake and try to get their marriage annulled. The judge asks them for some time, and asks them to think it over. After an evening of wacky hijinks, they decide they want to keep the marriage.
7. Primal Fear: Dewangee
Both Dewangee and Primal Fear were massive hits with their respective audiences. And although both movies are grim in nature, Dewangee took it a step further by casting Ajay Devgan’s butt chin as the primary antagonist. Apparently this was a good thing, since Dewangee went on to win India’s version of the Oscars for Best Villain. Ironically, Edward Norton was nominated for the same role in America’s version of the Oscars.
The Hollywood Plot: Martin Vail is one of Chicago’s best lawyers
The Bollywood Plot: Raj is one of India’s best lawyers, who jumps on the case of his friend’s mentor, Tarang, who has been accused of murdering a business tycoon. In a twist ending, Raj finds out that Tarang has split personality disorder. And instead of throwing his ass in jail, he is acquitted. Until an even twistier ending where we find out Tarang made up the whole split personality thing to not go to jail.
6. My Best Friend’s Wedding: Meri Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai
In this case, Meri Yaar ki Shaadi Hai actually translates into “My best friend’s wedding” because screw subtlety. This 2002 Yash Chopra (read: excessively romantic) movie was Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu’s first mainstream debut. But, unlike its Julia Roberts counterpart, Meri Yaar actually grossed ten times more in its opening weekend than My Best Friend’s Wedding did in its entirety. Hooray for plagiarism! They actually went ahead and asked the director if he copied, to which he replied that only the word-for-word title and entire plot are similar, but that’s it! No Julia Roberts, for one thing.
The Hollywood Plot: While living in America, Julianne gets a call from her old friend Michael who it turns out is getting married. As happy as she should be, Julianne realizes that she loves Michael and makes it her goal to ruin his marriage so that she can marry him.
The Bollywood Plot: While living in Mumbai, Sanjay gets a call from his old friend Anjali who it turns out is getting married. As happy as he should be, Sanjay realizes that he loves Anjali and makes it his goal to ruin her marriage so that he can marry her.
See, it’s okay because they gender flipped.
5. Sleeping With The Enemy: Daraar
Sleeping with the Enemy, albeit sounding like a spy thriller, is one of the most successful mainstream horror movies Hollywood has produced. Similarly, Daraar, which stars Juhi Chawla (India’s version of Julia Roberts) did very well in theaters, and both Patrick Bergin and Arbaaz Khan won nominations for their portrayal of abusive husbands. The success behind Daraar is actually quite baffling, considering Bollywood attempted two official remakes of SWTE (we’re too lazy to copy/paste) and both failed spectacularly. Maybe watching plagiarized movies provides some sort of primal thrill to Indian movie goers.
The Hollywood Plot: Laura and Martin have been happily married and are living the good life. By which we mean that Martin is an abusive husband who beats Laura regularly. One day on a fishing outing, Laura falls overboard and makes it look like she drowned. She swims to shore and moves to a small town. Over there, she falls in love with Ben and everything starts looking until Martin finds out she’s alive and attempts to kill her. But with the help of Ben, Laura kills Martin.
The Bollywood Plot: Priya and Vikram have been happily married and are living the good life. By which we mean that Vikram is an abusive husband who beats Priya regularly. One day on a fishing outing, Priya falls overboard and makes it look like she drowned. She swims to shore and moves to a small town. Over there, she falls in love with Raj and everything starts looking until Vikram finds out she’s alive and attempts to kill her. But with the help of Raj, Priya kills Vikram.
4. Clueless: Aisha
The 2010 film Aisha was pretty well received by audiences despite being on a long chain of plagiarized stories. Aisha ripped off 1995’s Clueless, which in turn ripped off Jane Austen’s Emma, which in turn ripped off every other Jane Austen book. In each case, the story is about a popular kid who knows she’s better than everyone until some event makes her realize that she IS better than everyone, oh and she’ll probably get the boy too. That’s okay, because the story is usually heartwarming enough that you’ll forget how much you hate the lead (See: Hitch/Partner, the male version of this story).
The Hollywood Plot: Cher is a popular cheerleader (because of course she is) who plays matchmaker with everyone in her school, mostly to gain leverage. Except all her work backfires one day, and she loses her popular status. After a shopping spree, she decides that she needs to apologize to her friends (who are now popular) and then gets the boy. Wow, that was totally coherent.
The Bollywood Plot: Aisha is a popular kid who likes to play matchmaker with her friends. This all changes when she realizes she loves a guy names Arjun. In trying to get with him, she accidentally offends all her friends and everyone hates her. Finally, she realizes she was wrong and apologizes, which gets her the guy.
3. The Parent Trap: Do Kaliyan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQuBmwOUFpU
For most of us, our first thought when we think of The Parent Trap is “You mean when Lindsay Lohan wasn’t doing drugs?” which is fine, except that Do Kaliyan (or “two cheeks” in Hindi) came out way before Disney’s movie. Before our entire argument falls apart and you turn off this page in disgust, you should know that the Disney movie is actually a remake of an old 1961 film starring Brian Keith. Since we don’t know who that is, we’re just going to be offended on our parents’ behalf. Cue plot comparisons!
The Hollywood Plot: NOT Lindsay Lohan and NOT Lindsay Lohan meet up at a summer camp and realize they’re siblings. They decide to switch places to meet their other parent and also to bring them together.
The Bollywood Plot: After a complicated back story regarding the parents, two twins meet up at a school field trip and realize they’re siblings. They decide to switch places so that they can bring their parents together again.
2. When Harry Met Sally: Hum Tum
Back when Billy Crystal was still relevant, he made When Harry Met Sally. The movie is basically founded on something that every guy was thinking anyway: a girl and a guy can’t be friends without boning each other. When it comes to movies, India has been conservative with PDA, so it changed this to “falling in love” (even though the leads have sex later in the movie). We would understand if another movie was based on that idea, since it’s pretty common. But Hum Tum took this one step further with some of the elements of its plot.
The Hollywood Plot: Harry gives Sally a ride one day, and they discuss whether a man and a woman can be friends without having sex. They split and bump into each other a few years later when they try to set up each other with their best friends. The plan backfires and the best friends get together. Finally, Harry and Sally decide to try a relationship and sleep together. After some strong guilt and awkward pauses, they fall in love. Awwww.
The Bollywood Plot: Karan and Rhea meet up one day and have a conversation about whether a man and a woman can be friends without falling in love. A few years later, they bump into each other and decide to set each other up with their best friends, except then their best friends marry each other. Finally, they decide to give their relationship a shot, and sleep together. After some strong guilt and awkward pauses, they fall in love. AwwwWAIT.
1. Bruce Almighty: God Tussi Great Ho
Some people say that Hollywood is out of ideas; those people have never been to India. Because there’s no way Bollywood would willingly choose to plagiarize Bruce Almighty. Remember, this is the movie that told us God gives His power to drunken losers for the sole purpose of fixing their love lives. And yet here it is. God Tussi Great Ho or “God, You Are Great” (and kinda retarded for giving away your powers) was released in 2008 and immediately was accused of blatant plagiarism.
The director responded by saying that the movie isn’t based on Bruce Almighty but a story of a village priest, which sounds like the vaguest, most half-assed explanation someone can pull out of their butt on short notice. They even casted Amitabh Bachan, who is basically India’s Morgan Freeman, as God and gave him the same damn white suit from Bruce Almighty. Village priest my arse.
The Hollywood Plot: Bruce is a TV anchor whose life is falling apart. He has a crippling love life and can’t get the TV job his coworker has. After blaming God for all his problems, God comes and gives Bruce His powers for 10 days. Bruce uses it to manipulate his life into getting better. Eventually Bruce is confronted with voices, which God says are prayers. Bruce answers yes to all the prayers, causing massive panic. Eventually God tells Bruce that the world is falling apart because he misused His powers. He resets Bruce’s life and Bruce wins the girl.
The Bollywood Plot: Arun is a TV anchor whose life is falling apart. He has no love life and his coworker got the TV promotion he wanted. After blaming God for his own problems, God visits him and offers to give him His powers for 10 days. Arun takes the offer and uses God’s power to manipulate his life. When confronted with voices, God tells him those are prayers. Instead of hearing them, he answers yes to all the prayers causing massive panic. Eventually okay that’s it! The similarities are too much! Why the hell would you rip off Bruce Al-freaking-mighty! It makes no sense, Bollywood. JUST STICK TO MINDLESS RAJNIKANTH ACTION CRAP, FOR MORGAN FREEMAN’S SAKE!
Mohammed Shariff can be followed on Twitter and Facebook
80 Comments
you should watch the movies you wrote about with a little more attention. The couple decide to divorce and become friends with their future as lovers unknown in the movie ek main aur ek tu. Also deewangee is not the remake of fear but the john bipasha move aitbaar is. Please check your facts before you post.
Bollywood is CHORwood
This is the stupidest biased list i’ve ever come across.
For those clearly self-obsessed and racist white folks who thinks Indian films are a joke, why not review your Hollywood stupidity first and then come watch some classy Bollywood movies.
1. Taare Zameen Par
2. 3 Idiots
3. Kahaani
4. Talaash
5. Black
And for anyone that thinks that Indians are not creative while making movies, try to make a film which includes tradition, culture, ethnically diverse languages, SONGS AND DANCE. This is way more CREATIVE than flying robots and wizards and hamburgers.
Just an FYI, this list was written by someone who isn’t white. And we have many lists that review poorly done movies in Hollywood. Thank you for the titles of these Bollywood movies.
and its true that Bollywood copies from Hollywood, and maybe without giving them the credit , which even i feel is a wrong thing to do. But that doesn’t means i hate indian cinema.
Infact , i love how bollywood makes their films with a bit of masala which makes it entertaining and less boring. But i would love to see indian film makers make up their own storylines or take something out of the novels that are written by indian authors.
And all the guys above (mostly Pakis i guess) who misspelled the name of the film as “Momento”
… i would suggest them to learn how to spell first , because the actual name is MEMENTO released on 2000.
i had a chat friend a few years ago . Met him on myspace . He was an african american guy , and a fan of Bipasha and he clearly admitted that Hollywood copies a lot from Korean and Japanese films .
Not to forget the film Dark Water (2005) starring Jennifer Connelly which is a copy of a 2002 Japanese film of the same name (source imdb)
@ karan
oh yeah , you mentioned in your post above that the idea of carrying the baby on the back of actress Sigourney Weaver while fighting with the aliens was taken from Jhansi Laxmibai ?? LOL .
C’mon man, don’t humour us with your ridiculous views.
I mean , any brave mother with a helpless baby would act like that in such a situation .
Im sure many women in the past acted like that in times of war or dealing with criminals etc.
@ Karan Shirwadkar
Learn to spell the name of our city first . Its Kolkata (there should be only one T) , and not kolkatta .
Great article, can’t believe they ripped off Bruce Almighty. You also left out Bad Boys=Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.
The Bollywood talentless hacks are very god at ripping of hw, because the so called directors n the producers are lazy and unimaginative characters.
I’m glad that HW is starting to sue the talentless hacks at BW, now the BW movies will be even more intolerable and torturing.
Do Kaliyaan doesn’t mean two cheeks, it means two small flowers.
yes i forgot to say this was a nice site if all these are true then i trully appreciate your work
i guess whatever it is whather indian films are copied from hollywood movies or hollywood movies copied from indian movies i know this much that these copied movies are mostly good and they earn a lot so instead of fighting that my country is good etc and etc we should watch these movies and praise the directors who actually made or copied the movies instead of praising the country
i m an indian so for sure i support indian movies and i really like them
Here’s my pick:
Agneepath (Scarface)
Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahi (It Happened One Night)
Akele Hum Akele Tum (Kramer vs. Kramer)
Koi Mil Gaya (ET)
Kaante (Reservoir Dogs)
Black (The Miracle Worker)
The list is practically endless!
@Vijay: Seriously? Pointing out the glaring ignorance of the author is blind patriosm now? Shall I then call you anti-Indian/self-loathing because of your support towards the obviously skewed opinion of the writer?
One More Guyz,
Momemto = Ghajini
One understands that the cast system’ still exists in Indian society almost as though it wasn’t outlawed in 1950. This notion that people with ‘white skin’ are of some superior value, was the same pathology of the self-hating Adolph Hitler, who was thought to be part Jewish and thus hated the Jews more completely than anyone else. This is clear because that ‘cast system’ causes one to disregard people with dark skin even if they are also Indian.
The word ‘Bollywood’ is a rip off of ‘Hollywood’.
I rest my case!
I agree with the writer.
I am an Indian but do not agree with blinded patriotism of some comment writers here.
Bollywood is a joke, except 3idiots. Did you ever walk and dance around the streets of london or paris etc. singing a song with your girlfriend. In every typical bollywood movie, there will be a hero ,heroineand a villian. At some point of the film the heroine will be kidnapped by the villian and predictably the hero would fly in into their hideout from out of nowhere. Then the hero would run between bullets and kill about 100 bad guys with his bare hands. Then in the final face off with the villian he will definitely get shot somewhere in the shoulder but after some funny fight scenes he will finally kill the villain thus saving his girlfriend in the nick of time. I can also guarantee you that the hero and heroine would definitely go to some beautiful foreign country just to sing and dance together in the middle of nowhere
Author: Some of your backhanded comments are extremely rude. You need to show respect, especially to God and other people’s religion(s). May God have mercy on your soul. SMH
karan, do you have sources for any of this? I’d love to read more, especially about the theft of E.T.
its on the IMDb page of E.T. also read the wiki page on satyajit ray and E.T, also i think its on the wiki page of steven speilberg. if u r not Indian, i would suggest u to look for books on indian movies and satyajit ray. the guys at the academy awards came to kolkatta (india) to ray’s house to him his honorary award. steven speilberg, of course, rejects all the claims about ET.
whoever wrote this post surely needs to see the mirror. he/ she has no clue about Indian movies and surely knows nothing about american movies as well. he/ she is just another lazy bum who hasn’t cared to do any research. ‘ET – The Extra Terrestrial’ is based on a script by world renowned Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose work as a filmmaker was acknowledged by the academy. Steven Spielberg sat holding his nuts and continues to speak lie about the origin of the script.
James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ is a rip-off of a 1993 Malayalam movie ‘Vietnam Colony’. The aliens in the former title is the director’s input to the story. There is a wikipedia page and IMDb link for this. James Cameron’s ‘True Lies’ is a rip-off of some french movie. There is an IMDb page link for this as well. James Cameron’s ‘Aliens’ climax, where the female lead fights the aliens with the little girl tied on her back is based on the story of a historical figure Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, who fought the battle of Jhansi with her baby tied on her back.
Go Google it.
Players = The Italian Job.
This is for the ones who believe that bollywood completely copies Hollywood and Hollywood is very creative and has its own ideas. Even Hollywood has copied many films(if u count their will be a long list) and as of bollywood, its right that it copied some of the holly. Movies but if u see the old Indian movies, they r a hit still and Hollywood is not a bit near them and even the latest movies are one of their own kinds. I don’t think any Hollywood director had a old film like ‘ sitapur ki gita’ or a new one like ‘rockstar’ in mind.
So, u see all those copyright and stuff happened in the middle. Bollywood is still great and the movies are worth watching.
@slevin: sorry for my rude comments about u:p forgive me
I suggest you people don’t fight.It is not the fault of a ordinary citizen of India.Its the fault of those creepy directors and producers who just want things ready without doing any work.I think in Hollywood there must be some directors like these creepy ones in India.So it will be good for us not to fight.I suggest you all to be good friends as it will strenghten the friendship boundary of india with all other countrie.Enjoy your day everyone.
The name “Bollywood” is a portmanteau derived from B ombay (the former name for Mumbai) and H ollywood , the center of the American film industry . However, unlike Hollywood, Bollywood does not exist as a physical place. Though some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood, it has its own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary .
The naming scheme for “Bollywood” was inspired by “Tollywood”, the name that was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal . Dating back to 1932, “Tollywood” was the earliest Hollywood-inspired name , referring to the Bengali film industry based in Tollygunge , whose name is reminiscent of “Hollywood” and was the center of the cinema of India at the time. It was this “chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables,” Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name “Tollywood” being coined. The name “Tollywood” went on to be used as a nickname for the Bengali film industry by the popular Kolkata -based Junior Statesman youth magazine, establishing a precedent for other film industries to use similar-sounding names, eventually leading to the term “Bollywood” being coined
I still like some Bollywood films like those of Hrithik Roshan and especially Aamir Khan. 3 Idiots, Ghajini, and Lagaan are some of my favourite films, even though Ghajini is a ripoff of Memento with Bollywood flavour.
@ Amrendra, I’m saying that because in Hollywood you hear that someone has bought the rights to remake a movie from other film industries, while in Bollywood I’ve never heard someone say that they bought remake rights for Hollywood movies. @ Jay, Juno got pregnant in highschool not college, and it was alredy known before shooting that Martin Scorsese would make a remake of Infernal Affairs, he had bought the rights to that movie.
First of all
great list!!!!
bollywood doesnt just stop at copying movies, it has been copying music from all over the world
without giving due credit to the original composers for the last few decades. you can check out the
website http://www.itwofs.com/, which details alot of these criminal acts.
india needs to rid itself of bollywood if it ever wants to be recognized in the world of art. It is supported primarily by 50 year old ladies who like mediocrity
you people in the west who get offended at this list because you somehow feel it is ethnocentric or whatever are part of the problem. You think watching bollywood makes you worldly but all it makes you is a supporter of plagiarism and cheap entertainment. lack of creativity needs to be called out no matter where it is found.
Bollywood in no way represents indian art. I predict it will be rendered irrelevent within the next 15 years.
I am an Indian, and Bollywood is a waste of time. The ’90s movies used to be watchable, but what we have now are lame rip-offs of foriegn cinema, senseless love stories or stupidly constructed ‘thrillers’ (ha ha!) such as Dhoom, Dhoom 2 and Agent Vinod.
And of course, let’s not forget Mahesh ‘terrorist’ Bhatt’s underworld financed films like Murder 2, which was a rip-off of the Korean film, ‘The Chaser’.
Besides Hollywood, I watch Korean, Japanese, Thai, Hong Kong, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, French and Spanish movies. And as far as Indian cinema is concerned, I watch Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies.
The amount of plagiarism is like this:
1) Bollywood rips off entire plots and sometimes just scenes. For eg: Guzaarish ripped off the Spanish flick, ‘The Sea Inside’ whereas Om Shanti Om ripped off a scene from the Swedish comedy flick, ‘Kopps’.
2) Tamil Cinema rips off certain scenes from Hollywood. Some rare films like Ko are complete rip-offs, but not much.
3) Telugu cinema rips off action scenes from Hollywood and world cinema sometimes, but not the whole plots.
On the whole, Telugu film industry is better. Movies like King, Vedam, Vikaramarkudu, etc. are quite good. Tamil films have good comedic value, whereas Bollywood, which used to be a family friendly entertainment, completely sucks.
That not withstanding, there have been some good bollywood flicks like Swades, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Kahaani, etc.
I wonder how the Bollywood morons live in dreamland thinking that they are the next big thing when they will ever match the greatness of flicks like La Vie En Rose (French) or Pan’s Labyrinth (Spanish) or One Nite in Mongkok (Hong Kong), my personal favorites.
A simple thing for Indian cinema to do – stay true to your culture. Instead of waxing the male leads and bathing them in fair and lovely, and making incessant travel to foriegn locales, try to make movies that are actually based in India, and portray Indian culture accurately. The biopics of GV Iyer such as ‘Adi Shankaracharya’ (1989), the more recent Telugu flick, ‘Sri Ramadaasu’ (2006) are examples of the beauty that Indian culture possesses. Why not make more movies like those?
We love songs and dances. While I appreciate intellectual foriegn movies like The Prestige (Hollywood), When Darkness Falls (Sweden) and Vedam (Telugu), I also love brainless entertainers like Pokiri and Rowdy Rathore. So, if Bollywood can’t make intellectual movies, stick to ‘mass’ movies like Wanted or Rowdy Rathore, or love stories like Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, which are enjoyable to the Indian audience. Why try to ape Western culture so much?
Bollywood is not Indian film industry, it is Non-Resident Indian (NRI) film industry.
Excuse the long rant. As an aside, let me say that Hollywood is also going downhill at the moment. Only Chris Nolan can save it!
Thanks- a nice balanced response
Im confused, why would you condemn a whole industry or sect of anyway, then turn around and say you like parts of it. Its like saying Hindu stole my bike, now I hate ALL Hindu. While I do think this list is garbage, there is one fact that still remains. I thought you might hit on it in your post. Bolly is still here. So what does that mean? That means there is a place for it. Many people just want a laugh or a cry or a complex movie that makes them think. I happen to be all in one, which I am thinking you are as well by your own admission of liking some of the less complex movies. There are people that NEVER want anything more than a movie that makes the laugh, or cheer for the underdog, or hope to bump into their true love in some mushy completely Holly/Bollywood fairy tale. But that is why it is here. There is a movie in every language for everyone. That is what they are for. Enjoyment.
Not only that but why cant people understand, that some people want to see themselves in a movie they watch. To put it plainly: The average girl does NOT look like the pale blonde-haired/blue eyed heroin in your average Hollywood made movie, so when she see a girl that looks like her, that represents HER. Long beautiful dark hair, caramel skin full lips, speaking like her right down to slang words she understands. She can start to imagine herself, get lost in the movie and enjoy it more. Trust me ask any minority in America and they will agree its a nice change from the norm.
So there is reason, havent you ever said, Id like to see so and so play the lead in this same movie, well pick a foreign movie and go for it. No reading, no guessing what they are saying, you KNOW because it was made for you!
Proof and truth I so loved Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai so much better than my Best Friends Wedding. Yes I am American. But to me the story was so much richer done Overseas. The customs, the songs, the dance. It was amazing to me, I even hunted down the sound track! To see that people all over the world have the same troubles. There is nothing wrong and its legal so long as the proper channels are followed. Besides, you may be lucky and can watch any movie in any language from any land you like. Some people cant, and this is a way for them to experience them.
A pleasure speaking with you and year and 1/2 later. 🙂 Hope you are well and enjoying the cinema! <3
LOL! Make that 2 years later. Cheers! <3
This is one of the stupidest listsI have seen in a long time. It is clear that the author has some sort of anger/grudge towards Bollywood or India in general. Almost none of these movies were “superhits”. “Just Go With It” is a blatant copy of “Maine Pyar Kyun Kia”. @Mohammed Shariff….You can’t “diginfy” the rest with a response because you have no answers. This list is not satirical at all. It seems to be a mindless rant. By talking about random minor plots, you can make almost any two movies seem like a copy of each other. For example, a man’s family is killed and he is seeking revenge. Eventually, he kills the villain. I could be talking about “Gladiator” or “Law Abiding Citizen”. It does not mean that one movie copied the other. Next time, think before you write a list like this…..
‘Do kaliyaan’ means two flower buds and not two cheeks.
This article could have been funny and interesting but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
“What more can you expect from an industry that can’t think up its own name?”
Really? Who started to call Hindi Film Industry by the name Bollywood? I was going to be diplomatic in my reply after reading some of the comments here. But then again, this statement proves the ignorance and arrogance of the writer.
I would have ignored the list writer’s bias had it being someone else but I think this was written by the site owner himself. Sir I request you to properly research about an ‘alien’ (to you) culture before you go on to make some sensational egoistical statements in the future if you could help it.
I thought toptenz was unlike some other list sites which are clearly biased but then again I have been wrong before.
Maybe I will give you benefit of the doubt this time (not that you would care for a single reader), but I doubt whether I would visit this site more frequently from now on.
The owner did not write the list. It was contributed by one of our writers. The author does have familiarity with this industry. You can read the comments below to find out more. And I am feel too many commenters use the same argument that toptenz doesn’t care about one reader. I have changed list because I’d one reader many times. In fact we changed the comedic duo list just two days ago. Sorry this list was offensive, it was meant as satire.
The familiarity of the list author is questioned here because of the following issues:
‘Here are 10 Bollywood “mega-hits” with ridiculously familiar plots.’ – None of these were mega – hits. On the contrary, more than half of these bombed horribly.
‘Do Kaliyan (or “two cheeks” in Hindi)’ – As many have pointed out, it does not translate to ‘two cheeks’, it translates to ‘two flower buds’, or if I am thinking correctly, what the list author originally intended was the crude meaning ‘two chicks’ which horribly translated into ‘two cheeks’.
Rajnikanth does not work in Hindi movies.
So in my humble opinion, a satire does not work if you cannot get the facts right. It really becomes ironic, as this one did.
Duly noted. Not every list will please everyone. I hope you find future lists more to your liking.
Thank you. I hope the same.
Yeah, my hindi sucks. I was basing that translation off the Banglori slang word for cheek, “Kalya” which when added with the “ah” plural ending, would make “kaliyan”.
I won’t dignify the rest with a response.
Gajni is rip-off of Momento. India lacks major originality.
I’m indian and i want to clarify something. When we say indian movie industry it doesn’t mean bollywood. Indian movie industry is prominently divided into 4 movie industry..
1. Hindi movie industry (aka bollywood)
2. Bengali movie industry (aka tollywood)
3. Bhojpuri movie industry
4. Tamil movie industry
Movies with superhuman stunts is tamil one.. I found this list intersting but one sentence is wrong.”However, for every
five Bollywood movies, there are
two that are YouTube worthy, two of
them which flop, and the one
successful one is usually a Hollywood
rip-off.” this sentence is wrong.. Out of 5 movies 1 is hollywood(or other indian movie’s) rip off and 1 has bad action but there are 3 movies that are bollywood original ideas. And also 4 of the 10 movies, you named, are flop. Aisha, mere yaar ki shadi hai, god tussi great ho and dewangi. Rest 6 are also not mega hit, there are either hit or semi hit. And i want to clarify that 90% movies copied from hollywood are flop and the coping is getting less now.
Dude…
So you think the entire south india has only one industry?
All the four states have their own movie industries and each of them is bigger than
the bhojpuri industry.
As for the superhuman stunts,I as a south indian watch hindi movies but i sense you have no idea abt the movies from the south.Heard of Kamal Hasan?
Also of the 5 movies you mentioned,you forgot to include 2 movies ripped off from south and remade in hindi …mostly by salman or ajay devgn
uh, you guys didn’t know that the LiLo version of The Parent Trap was a remake?
The original is a good movie, btw…
Just saying…
Hollywood does buy the rights to remake films from other industries while Bollywood just straight up steals the idea.
@ Mervin – You are right all the copy right files of the movies must be going through you.
They even made a rip off of a video game(looking at you 7am arivu)
Here are some more:
Old Boy -Zinda (Korean adaptation)
The Others – Hum Kaun Hai?
Terminator 2 –
Unfaithful – Murder
Pride And Prejudice – Bride And Prejudice
Ghost – Darling
There’s something about mary – Deewane Huye Pagal
Fast and the furious – Dhoom
Switch – Mr ya Miss
Since there was too much serious debate I thought of pasting the below points to show that in the end we all are the same. cheers!!!
Learning from Movies
AMERICAN MOVIES TEACH US
¤ Chinese have nothing better to do than teaching or practice Kung Fu.
¤ More than 50% of U.S. population are FBI/CIA agents, working undercover.
¤ The purpose of school system of U.S. is to promote basketball.
¤ Aliens have special interest in attacking U.S.
¤ U.S. is a place where you can meet all mythical creatures like warewolves and
vampires.
INDIAN MOVIES TEACH US
¤ At least one of the identical twins is born evil.
¤ While defusing a bomb, do not worry,
whichever wire you cut you “always choose the right”.
¤ A hero will show no pain, while getting beaten up; but will show pain when a girl
cleans up his wound.
¤ A detective can solve a case only when he is suspended from duty.
¤ If you decide to start dancing on the street,
everyone you meet will know the steps.
How about the fact that the main character in every(almost) Indian movie can solo 10+ strong, armed people while bare handed for no apparent reason. If that person is Krrish or Raone, it is ok, but an ordinary guy, that is retarded. Nobody even cares about this and enjoys the scenes like hell. I am Indian and do enjoy the movies, but this fact is what i hate most
This is a very typical mentality of people that living in a developed world they want to bash every country who is trying to go up. Make fun of them, try to show them down etc etc. I was not offended and I like humor no matter what but when genuine hatred is hidden amongst satire or humor it becomes quiet prevelent. All those people who are saying that some people would be offended don’t know much about the local culture of the country and how it works. They just speak their opinions based on what they see on the news. And what a lame stream media is today we all know.
@ Mohammad – Sorry that I thought you were from Pakistan but buddy why would you write something as mindless as that saying Bollywood should stick to Rajnikanth. That too you are from Bangalore and you know that Rajnikanth isn’t a mainstream Bollywood actor. You should also know that even though he makes such movies but he has a huge following and as a person he is an amazing man. Very down to earth and never ever endorses any advertisements or fly in the sky because of his stardom. Over that you wrote “What more can you expect from an industry that can’t think up its own name?” Look at US. Why do they call the ethnic population Red Indians and have teams called Cincinnati Bengals, have an entire state called Indiana? Leave that many places in US are named after other places in the world. Do I have to say more. Please enlighten yourself. I enjoyed your list but I found less humor and more disgust which you have portrayed. If you want to be a good writer and want people to appreciate your work start taking criticism just like you would like to make fun of others.
“I was not offended”
Obviously you were….
Im sorry to butt in here Amrendra, but while you are chastising Mohammad, may I point out your own narcissistic mistake? Most things that have an “Indian” feel to it is for the Native People America. Indiana means Land of the Indians, yes you are Indians because you are people from the country of. However world over you are considered Hindi or Hindu to separate you from Native Americans or Indigenous Peoples of other cultures such as Mayans from Mexico.
As far as the Bangles, I hate to break it to you, The influence for the name began as a homage to an earlier High School team the head coach had lead called the Tigers prior to the Bengals. Not sure if they felt this way, but the Tiger is a popular animal used in kids/teenagers sports, so I think of Little league and PoP Warner teams when I hear Tigers. But the Bengal? The Bangle is King of the Jungle as the Lion is of the Savannah. So maybe that is what lead to the actual “upgrade” of the name. (A bit more manly for them LOL.) So you see the Country of India had nothing to do with any of the examples you used. So I guess them same could be said to you?
Its okay to be offended, I am not Indian nor Hindi or Hindu however anyone wants to call the people of a Beautiful country. But I too was put off by this “list.” However I am glad that TopTenz swallowed with dignity and admitted this writer was “just doing his job, and knows nothing about the Films or the Culture.” Dont even care if it was the writer, if its the truth. The incorrect things falling out of mouth from some of these poster is hard to hear, but proves ignorance is bliss, however they also miss out on some great viewing. 😉 To each his own. <3
Duh, “Do Kaliyan” does NOT translate to “two cheeks” !! What nonsense. It translates to “two Buds” as in two flower buds.
Now how did I know that when I saw the title of this list, that I just KNEW someone would be offended.
Your translation of “Do Kaliyaan” should have been TWO BUDS not cheeks!!!
doesn’t hollywood like buy the rights to remake movies??
Im from Nepal and i like both bollywood as well as hollywood.No need to compare between them.Both have their own taste.None of the film industry of this world is 100% original.If bollywood has copied hollywood then its not true that hollywood is original it has also copied from other industry.So the above list is offensive.
And another thing is that rajnikant isn’t bollywood actor.
@josef: you should take a criticism rather then attack people`s opinion`s. Bollywood has creativity that`s why you have seen movies like Satyajit Ray`s Apu trilogy, which btw has been said to be the inspiration of many notable Hollywood directors.
@jason: No one mentioned that it was a hate list. It`s just that the wroter os the list has a bias towards the Indian movie industry.
and @slevin: Please dnt talk about creativity. As Amrendra quoted no one should remind how many Japanese,Korean movies have been ripped off by Hollywood in the name of inspiration.Satyajit Ray was given an oscar to honor him for his creativity. Danny Boyle won an Oscar for a movie based in and on India though I dnt agree how he portrayed India.
A.R.Rahman won an Oscar and was nominated again for 127 hours, so we do have creativity, and the only difference between Hollywood movies and bollywood are the budgets of the movies.
Just take criticism with a pinch of salt buddy…u took it personally. My writing was directed to the person who made the list.
Its not Bollywood’s fault they have no budget or creativity
Whose fault is that then? 🙂 Hollywood’s?
ummm Cher was not a cheerleader in Clueless…just saying
Thank you I was gonna comment on that myself
some people just need to have a sense of humor and not go looking for something to get offended at..it’s a top ten list..not a hate filled, anti India speech by a politician..if those films did well in Bollywood, that’s fine..more power to them, but lighten up, please.
Jason, exactly my words.. It’s ridiculous to get offended by an article like this..
@Jason: i just read what u wrote and its good u don’t take matters so seriously but that person M.shariff was going out of his limits, getting offended was obvious, i am sure if he said something like that about Hollywood u would give the same reaction.
@Josef: well, I’ll tell u the same thing i told Jason so i don’t need to repeat. Do I?
@slevin: (sorry if i wrote ur name wrong coz i don’t remember it very well)u are just too rude and arrogant. Jason and Joseph were then also polite but I’ll like to recommend u to think twice b4 u say something
And Hollywood may not be original, but at lest it isn’t “so bad it’s past good and back bad again”.
I am form India. Please stop your comments of the only successful Bollywood movie to be a Hollywood rip-off. And on the naming front, Hollywood is not exactly original, since it came from the place where your film industry is set up. Ours is in the Commercial capital of India, Mumbai. And yes some of the movies we make are rip-offs of American Industry. How about Juno which took the basic plot idea from Indian movie Kya Kehna (1999) of a unmarried girl getting pregnant in college.
Yes we do have Rajnikant movies which are absurd, but you also have Waterworld and Battleship 2001.
So being such biased. Please watch current hits like Kahaani, Rajneeti, Black etc for our originality and then comment. Departed made by Martin Scorsese is a rip off of Internal Affairs but with a mega starcast and it over shadowed the Korean movie. So despite the fact that Hollywood has novel and original ideas, it also sometimes rip-off other movies. I would like to see a list of that also.
Completely agree. Rather than being more funny even the introduction of this list seems more filled with hate for Indian film Industry rather than proper sarcasm. Mohammed Shariff is from Pakistan I guess so I understand why. he doesn’t realize that many the Pakistani actors come to India to try their luck in Bollywood. Even the Pakistani population loves Indian movies. Hollywood has lots of financial backing and power and any other film industry who tries to compete with them dies (look at the European film industry for example). Bollywood has its own thing going on and that is the reason the market for Indian movies is expanding exceptionally. Bollywood indeed copies from Hollywood but that doesn’t mean that Hollywood is so original. I think the Japanese should write a list as to how many movies Hollywood ripped from them.
No one forces you to read these articles. You can read only Indian or Pakistani articles, perhaps you will be more happy then.
Awww, I love it when people assume things. INDIA ZINDABAAD. Bangalore all the way.
I would like to see that list as well. Anyone want to take a crack at writing it?
dude raajniti is coppied from godfather
I totally agree. Even though this is just a top ten list, it’s still not true. I’ve watched most of these movies and what the plot in this website says is mostly wrong. “Partner”s plot says: ” Prem is a “love guru” who helps people out by matchmaking them with seemingly the perfect person. This all changes when he meets the one woman he can’t get, a single widowed mother. After some hilarious misunderstandings involving one night stands, Prem gets the girl.” But everyone thats watched the movie knows that this is everything. Partner is about a guy that helps a person get his true love while him self is falling in love with another, but get rejected because he is to irresponsible when he is trying to watch over his loves son.
Same for Hum Tum. They meet one day and the boy is of course an idiot and makes the girl mad (because of a public kiss, when their not even friends, just to get her to shut up) they get mad and go each others way. they meet up again a few years later, at her wedding. After the wedding the girl and her husband leaves for France i think. and the boy stays in India. they meet up again after a few years and the boy finds out that the girls husband died 2 years ago, so he tries to get her with his best friend. Making her even more mad. but they patch up and fall in love, but before the boy realizes it shes already gone. The boy ends up making a book about their awkward love story and when he publishes it a few years later he ends up in a raining weather soaking wet meeting a girl on the street. They look each other in the eyes and realize : “its not a dream”
i would write more, but thats enough for now
black is itself rip off of 1962 the miracle worker…even ditto copy 😛 and you say it about originality…most of the music preetam and himesh always steal from pakistan and asia pacific countries..even arabic tunes like ya ghali are stolen..50 % movies are hollywood rip offs, 30 % are korean and chinese one…and 20 % are the remakes..what else to say
Great jay, that’s the kind of comment that was needed to make mohhamed shariff (or whatever the spelling is) make him shut his mouth. I understand why he is criticising bollywood, the fact that India and Pakistan are rivals and all that. I read what he wrote and i agree to some level that they are rip-offs but even then bollywood gave the movies new meaning, they weren’t totally like Hollywood ones.
Black is a rip-off of “A Miracle Worker”.
Infernal Affairs is not a Korean film; it’s from Hong Kong.
The plots of Kya Kehna and Juno are entirely different but the plots of Teree Sang and Hong Kong film are exactly the same.
Research. Do it.
Yeah makes complete sense that you are a dumb and always looking for going for India I call those you call ‘Bollywood Movies’ “Recorded Circus” .
I am also Indian but I do have the courage to say that Indian film industry is substandard and copies a lot from hollywood , there is total lack of creativity not only in films but also in daily soaps on TVs . Serious crisis for Indians
Holly wood rips off no one more then it rips of hollywood itself. It’s been standard practice for as long as there has been a film industry for one studio to try copy/ripoff/cash in on the works of other studios. It could be a blatant be rip off/copy (ie Battle: Los Angelas rip off of Skyline and Battle of Los Angelas, Transmorphers rips of Transformers, and dozens of others) where a smaller studio rushes a cheap knock off of a popular or large mudget movie in hopes of cashing on or trading on name/concept with people just quickly browsing veio retailers. Or it could be comparably sized/ promoted films seeking direct competition (ie Abyss/Deep Star Six/ Leviathan from the 80’s, and Mighty Joe Young/King Kong, and others )
So while many movies are influenced and have scenes copied straight from others, it’s nothing new, it’s not solely a habit of HOllywood but of every film industry around the world, it’s not limited to film as it affects any entertainment medium, and it’s not going away so t here’s no reason to complain. Sit back enhoy the ones that you like, mock the ones you don’t and don’t take any of it too seriously.