Bollywood's plagiarism epidemic? List of Hollywood, Asian films and songs copied by B-town

Bollywood’s inherent Hinduphobia has come to light over recent years due to democratization of discourse through digital and social media. But another aspect that is not talked about as much is the lack of originality, and outright plagiarism that ails Bollywood.

In this article, we present a compilation of almost 100 movies that bear a marked resemblance to Hollywood, South Korean & Hong Kong movies and other world cinema. They are being reproduced as per Section 52 of Indian Copyright Act, 1957, similar to how the @GemsOfBollywood analyzes Bollywood movies, and ‘fair use’ doctrine.

1.) Andhadhun’s main plot is adapted from French short film ‘The Piano Tuner’.

In the original film a piano tuner pretends to be blind with white contact lens. He gets invitation from a man. He visits his home. A woman opens the door, and he slips due to blood. He sees the corpse of a murdered man. As he is faking his blindness, he has to remain calm after witnessing murder. This is where the French short film ends. Andhadhun’s director is Sriram Raghavan, who has also directed ‘Johnny Gaddar’, a film that he claimed was inspired by James Hadley Chase, while never mentioning the original French film Symphonie Pour Un Massacre, so I don’t trust him this time too. If Andhadhun has an original script then that’s probably why the second half was not as good as first half!

2.) Symphonie Pour Un Massacre became ‘Johnny Gaddar’. As the movie is French and released in 1963, nobody knew that Johnny Gaddar was a copy.

3.) Kuch Kuch Hota Hai has too many similarities with Sleepless in Seattle and Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)

4.) The original Korean film My Wife Is a Gangster 3 was copied to make ‘Singh Is Bling’. It has been copied scene to scene, including the camera angles!

5.) Zinda is a copy of Korean movie Old Boy

6.) Original film If Looks Could Kill, Nick of Time along with scenes from The Mask, Rush Hour were copied as Baadshah (1999)

The first half is a scene to scene, dialogue to dialogue copy of Hollywood’s If Looks Could Kill (released in UK as Teens Agent). The second half is a scene to scene copy of Nick Of Time. The song ‘Main To Hoon Pagal’ is copied from a song from Jim Carrey’s The Mask. The last scene where the hero hangs from a pole is copied from Rush Hour. There are other scenes copied from Mr. Nice Guy

7.) Original film A Kiss before dying was copied into another Shahrukh Khan starrer Baazigar

8.) Original film The Hard Way along with a few action scenes from Lethal Weapon were copied to make Main Khiladi Tu Anari

9.) Original Hollywood films Tango and Cash, Die Hard, The Hard Way were copied to make Baazi.

The way Akshay Kumar fools Saif Ali Khan in a fake encounter case in Main Khiladi Tu Anari (copied from The Hard Way), Aamir Khan fools Mamata Kulkarni in a similar way in Baazi. Some action scenes were copied from Tango and Cash, like hiding bullets inside a tank scene was copied from hiding drugs inside a truck, and prison fight scenes. As a user suggested, I checked and found that the opening scene of Godfather 2 was copied in Baazi too. The hero’s mother was also killed in a similar scene.

10.) Original movie It Happened one night was copied to make Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahi

11.) Original movie Houseboat was copied as Hum Hain rahi Pyar ke

12.) Original movie Kramer Vs Kramer was copied as Akele Hum Akele Tum

The title song for the Bollywood film was lifted from the Godfather‘s love theme. ‘Dil mera churaya kyun’ song was copied from Wham’s ‘Last christmas’.

13.) Original movie On The Waterfront was copied as Aamir Khan starrer Ghulam

14.) Original film An Affair to Remember was copied as Mann

A special mention should be made that every song of Mann was copied, a record unbroken till today. You may not understand the language but you will understand the language of music in the videos.

15.) Bollywood copies from its own past films too – often without giving credit! Original Bollywood movie Caravan (1971) was copied to make Mela. Mela also copied a scene from Dumb and Dumber.

16.) Original movie Silence of The Lambs was copied to make Sangharsh

17.) Hollywood hit Lethal Weapon has been plagiarized in parts by several Bollywood flicks like Elaan, Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Sadak, Farz.

Lethal Weapon doesn’t have any direct copy but many scenes from the movie are copied in various Bollywood films. The different directors though were somewhat smart in that they did not copy the same scene, like Baazi and Main Khiladi Tu Anari copied the same sequence from The Hard Way and many people thought Baazi copied a scene from Main Khiladi Tu Anari.

Elaan scene copy

Main Khiladi Tu Anari scene copy

Sadak scene copy

Farz also copied the basic storyline and scenes from Lethal Weapon: a young daredevil cop teams up with a middle-aged cop with family, who doesn’t like his new partner, and his daughter falls for his partner.

18.) Andaz Apna Apna copied scenes from Victoria no 203 (1972) and Waris (1969)

19.) Even some old Bollywood movies were not immune to this disease. Shelock Holmes novel Hound of The Baskervilles was copied to make Bees Saal Baad. The opening credits of Bees Saal Baad have no mention of the original source.

20.) Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None was copied to make Gumnaam Nowhere in the credit scenes of Gumnaam have they mentioned the story source.

21.) Agatha Christie novel The Unexpected Guest ‘inspired’ Dhund (1973)

22.) Original movie The Gift was copied as Rakht

23.) Original movie ET along with scenes from Flubber, Close encounters of the third kind were copied by the Rakesh Roshan hit Koi Mil Gaya

24.) Original movie Bruce Almighty was copied to make God Tussi Great Ho

25.) Original What Lies Beneath, copied Raaz

26.) Original – Leon The Professional, copied – Bichhoo

27.) Original – Unfaithful, Copied – Murder

28.) Original – To Each His Own, copied – Aradhana

29.) Original – Some like it hot, copied – Rafoo Chakkar

30.) Original Shattered, Copied – Yakeen

31.) Original – The Rock, Copied – Qayamat

32.) Original – Mr Canton and Lady Rose, Copied – Singh Is King

33.) Original – Bangkok Hilton, Copied – Gumrah

34.) Original – Return to Eden, copied – Khoon Bhari Maang

35.) Original – Sleeping With The Enemy, copied – Daraar

36.) Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar copied from Breaking Away

37.) Pyar to Hona Hi Tha copied from French Kiss

38.) Dushman copied from An Eye For An Eye

39.) Original – Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves, copied – Rajkumar

40.) Original – Collateral, Copied – The Killer

41.) Original- Death Wish 4, Hard Boiled, Copied – Mohra. The story of Mohra is copied from Death Wish 4, including action sequences. The last scene where Naseeruddin Shah forces Akshay Kumar to slap himself and is shot dead is copied from the climax of John Woo’s Hard Boiled.

I think you all know that Mohra‘s soundtrack is copied from Terminator

42.) Original- Taxi Driver, plus scenes copied from Lethal Weapon and Cyborg were copied for Sadak. The scene where Sanjay Dutt points a gun on his head is copied from Lethal Weapon and the scene where he intentionally talks about a small amount of money while trying to retrieve a stolen taxi is the same as the Mel Gibson movie. The last scene where Sanjay is tied to a pole and remembers the true identity of the main villain, is copied from Cyborg (1989).

43.) Chor Machaye Shor copied from Blue Streak

44.) Original – Consenting Adults, Copied- Ajnabee

45.) Kasoor copied from Jagged Edge

46.) Awara Pagal Deewana‘s story was copied from Whole Nine Yards and action scenes were copied from The Matrix

47.) Humraaz copied from A Perfect Murder

48.) Deewangee copied from Primal Fear

49.) Kuch to Hai copied from I know what you did Last Summer. And one scene was copied from Psycho

50.) Jism was copied from Body Heat

51.) Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya was copied from Cactus Flower and the last scene in a plane was copied from TV series Friends

52.) Farz copied from Ricochet and Lethal Weapon. The first half is inspired from Lethal Weapon, while the second half is scene to scene copied from Ricochet while one action scene was copied from Metro (1997)

53.) Awarapan copied from A Bittersweet Life

54.) Ek Villain copied from I saw The Devil

55.) Zeher copied from Out of Time – it was scene to scene copied.

56.) Aitbaar (1985) copied from Dial M for Murder

57.) Action Replay was a tacky remake of Back to the Future

58.) Phir Hera Pheri copied many movies. Its opening scene of currency note change problem was copied from the Sanjeev Kumar movie Itni Si Baat (1981). Other scenes were copied from Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Charlie Chaplin.

59.) Ghajini copied scenes from Memento and Happy Go Lovely. The romantic plot is copied from 1951 and the blind man scene is ‘inspired’ from Amelie.

60.) Bluffmaster (2005) is copied from Nine Queens and Matchstick Men

61.) Chocolate is copied from Usual Suspects

62.) Partner is copied from Hitch

63.) Criminal copied scene to scene from The Fugitive

64.) Kohraa copied from Rebecca

65.) Yeh Dillagi copied from Sabrina

66.) Yes Boss copied fromFor Love or Money

67.) Salaam Namaste copied from Nine Months

68.) Barfi copied from many movies.

69.) Bhagam Bhag copied scenes from Vertigo and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. The murder plot is taken from Vertigo while the last scene is copied from It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

70.) Kaante is copied from Reservoir Dogs

71.) Aatank Hi Aatank is copied from The Godfather

72.) Deewane huye Paagal is copied from There is something about Mary

73.) Original – A Better Tomorrow, Copied- Aatish

74.) Om Shanti Om copied scenes from Madhumati, Kopps, Naseeb, Karz

75.) West Side Story (1961) was copied to make Josh (2000)

76.) Ittefaq copied from Signpost to Murder

77.) U Turn was copied to make Musafir

78.) Mujhse Shaadi Karogi copied scenes from Anger Management and Meet The Parents

79.) No Man of Her Own was copied to make Kati Patang

80.) Serendipity was copied to make Milenge Milenge

81.) Aashiq Banaya Apne was copied from Tangled

82.) 36 China Town was copied from Crimen

83.) Dharmatma copied from The Godfather. How many times they will remake The Godfather?

84.) Garam Masala was copied from Boeing Boeing

85.) While you Were Sleeping was copied to make Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega

86.) Joshilay copied from For a Few Dollars More and one scene was copied from A Fistfull of Dollars

87.) Choti Si Baat copied from School For Scoundrels. This is not just ‘inspiration’. There are too many copied scenes from beginning to end. A few Indianized scenes were added along with songs.

88.) Jurm copied from Someone to Watch Over Me. And also copied two songs from 500 miles and Madonna’s La Isla Bonita.

89.) Duplicate copied from The Whole Town is Talking and also translated the most famous line from Dirty Harry.

90.) Kyon Kii.. main Jhuth Nahi Bolta was copied from Liar Liar, along with video tape hiding scene copied from Will Smith’s Enemy of the State. In both movies, the carrier is unaware that he is carrying a murder evidence, while the original video recorder is shot dead. In both movies, the protagonist finds the video tape afterwards.