PollShould Sanjay Dutt be pardoned?
Yes
59%
No
41%
Total votes: 393
Top Movies
Who's onlineThere are currently 83 users and 4094 guests online.
|
Hollywood Rip Off
This weekend I have been holed up in my apartment, watching the poetic classic movies of Sir Satyajit Ray. I had seen some of his movies before, of course, but I was way too young then to appreciate his work . I was barely 6/7 years old when my mom would ask me to watch 'Goopy Gyne bagha Byne' or 'Apu Trilogy' with her and I would run away because the movies were in B&W and as a little kid, black and white did not capture my imagination, a colorful Spiderman did. In case anyone's wondering, no I am not Bengali. I guess it would be a crime to be a Bengali and not see Satyajit Ray's work till you are a grown a$$ woman! I did not go back to his work till yesterday. I know, silly me, as a cinema aficionado, this is unforgivable. To quote the great Kurosawa "Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon." Having started watching his movies, I can understand this extravagant claim. So far I have seen the deliciously delightful movie 'Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne' and halfway through 'Charulata'. I can not get over the cinematography in Charulata, its exquisite. Naturally, since I am watching Ray's movies, I googled and wikied him. Now, hear this. The Great Spielberg, the embodiment of all things great about Hollywood, lifted his script from on of Ray's scripts 'The Alien' without giving a shred of credit, he even completely denied the accusation when faced with it. In 1962 he published a short sci-fi story 'Banka Babunka Bandhu' (Friend of Banka Babu) in his family run magazine 'Sandesh'. Later he developed a film script out of this story which depicts the landing of a spaceship in a remote Bengal village and interaction of the friendly alien with magical powers with the village kids. This story which was different in the sense that till that point in time, aliens had been treated in Hollywood movies as vicious creatures coming to enslave our planet. Ray's script attracted attention of a Hollywood agent who took Ray to Hollywood where Columbia pictures got involved in making the movie. The agent, a Mr. Wilson of questionable character, copyrighted the script behind Ray's back in both their names, taking credit for Ray's work and pocketed the whole fee. Ray got to know about it later and got disillusioned with the whole Hollywood scene with the politics, backstabbing etc and finally decided to postpone the project and comeback to India. Columbia Pictures tried to revive the project a few times in the 70's , but nothing materialized. While all this was happening during the late sixties, a young Spielberg having graduated high school in 1965, had started working in Hollywood as a very young director. He was definitely aware of this script 'The Alien' which was floating in a cloud of uncertainty during the late 60's and 70's. Then he made 'E.T.' in 1982, with so many parallels (down to the scenes) with Ray's script for 'The Alien' that it bordered on plagiarism. Ray noticed it and so did few other notable film personalities in Hollywood who had read his script for 'Alien'. Ray called Spielberg out on this, which he fiercely denied, of course. It's notable that Columbia Pictures co-produced the movie. When Rakesh Roshan's 'Krish' came out in 2006, I thought he copied 'E.T.', and I was naturally disappointed by the fact that yet again Bollywood ripped of Hollywood without giving credit. But as it turns out, Roshan's movie closely follows Ray's short story rather that Spielberg's 'E.T.'. I have attached here a picture of Ray's illustration of 'The Alien'. Does not E.T. look like its long lost cousin ? So, the movie making business, as it is in love and war, is a (dirty) game where people of Spielberg's stature rip off the script of a master international movie maker as celebrated and famous as Sir Satyajit Ray and get away with it!
|
.JPG)
Post new comment
@Wed, 2012-08-29 14:25 — Mila_in_NY
Mon, 2012-08-27 11:44 — Anonymous
Indeed I am, great spotting :-) though I have been living outside India for so long that I sometimes find it hard to figure out where do I belong.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thanks for replying :) and that makes two of us ! Being an oriya girl and not been to India for years, makes me wonder the same thing too ! But all said and done, home is where the heart is, and the heart will always be with bollywood ! LOL !
Mon, 2012-08-27 11:44 — Anonymous
Indeed I am, great spotting :-) though I have been living outside India for so long that I sometimes find it hard to figure out where do I belong.
Interesting post Mila_in_NY ! Now this makes me wonder if the 'great' Spielberg is the only one who has been 'inspired' by the genious Satyajit Ray !
But I noticed one thing...you have written ''Banka Babunka Bandhu'' which should be ''Bankubabur Bandhu". The former is oriya, and the later is bangla. Are you oriya (like me) ? :)
Ray's movies were one of the only few Indian movies that were based on original script. Most of Bollywood movies are trash in my viewpoint because they are just a bad immitation of Hollywood movies. No wonder old Hindi cinema seems 1000 times better than today's movies.
gr8 post!!
kudos!! :))
I have to agree not many Indian movies are completely original. Some old movies based on Indian novels are originals, Ray's movies are originals. But the story here is not about Bollywood ripping off Hollywood, which happens all the time. The story is about the high and mighty Spielberg stealing from lowly third world people like us Indians cuz you know, everything Western is just so very superior ;-)
Mila_in_NY
really nice posts ...
but think about it if Hollywood sue Bollywood for every thing they copy /rip off ......
Bollywood will disappeared ..... specially now there is no creativity at all in films/posters/music...
SLB will be jobless ;)...so let them rip off for once .........
i watched alot of old indian movies from 50-70 it was amazing simple movies even AMITABH's movies with dramatize/overacting / moralize concept...
and i was wandering what happened to Indian cinema.....why its became Bollywood ?????????????
Spielberg is overrated director....with no humanity
he always support every USA's wars ........
may be holly wood got inspiration from that story...but what about holly wood
rip offs in nearly every other Bollywood movie from dialogues, to action sequences
to comic scenes even...can you give an example where a holly wood A list
director copied or ripped off some thing from a Bollywood movie, of course not...
I am bengali as well!
I loved Satyajit Ray's Feluda series! & I have watched most of his movies. Must say, those are "REAL" stories, good dialogues & pure acting! This is something, we totally lack in BW these days. His movies wer indeed thoughtful and beautiful!
Thank you for the post!
Btw, u r also right tht HW should give credit to this great man! But as some of u said, back on tht time HW was way too powerful!
Thanks Mila_In_NY for this post.Its very interesting & something out of usual.And u seem like a person with a fine and exotic taste in films.Well I can relate to u as well since I'm a MASSIVE film aficionado with a capital 'M' myself,& my fave hobby is watching films all around the world right from Hollywood to Bollywood,from Italian to Japanase to Korea to German,and from Malyalam to Tamil to Marathi to of course Bengali. Being a Bengali myself I've watched countless of Satyajit Ray's films especially "Goopi gyne bagha byne","Pather Panchali","Charulata" and the "Apu Triology" qnd my favourite the "Feluda series"(both books and films). He's truly a gem of a director,THE ABSOLUTE BEST DIRECTOR INDIA HAS EVER PRODUCED,& an inspiration for all budding filmmaker,a true auteur and all I can say is that I'm proud about the fact that Bengal or more importantly India has produced such a mastermind genius.
Coming to the whole ruckass about the entire "Alien" script ripoff for Speilberg's E.T. The extra terristrial,I must first say that E.T. is one of my favourite films ever,I've enjoyed it immensely both as a child and adult & it manages to make me cry every time,& I just adore all of Speilberg's films my favourites being Jaws,Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones. And so obviously I was very aware of the fact that Speilberg had ripped off "Aliens" for many years. It's quite a sad little incident really that's been hushed down by the Hollywood political machinery.This is one of the few instances when the tables turned and Hollywood copied instead of the other way around but unfortunately nothing was done about this at that time because Hollywood is just too powerful.I agree with filmychia,that today through social networking maybe something could be done but during those days the thought of going against a man like Speilberg was unimaginable. But as u said that Ray was an artist and an artist just never points fingers at another,he just continues doing his exemplary work. However I still believe that Bollywood and India as a whole must be more aware of their music,films and books that are copied by not just Hollywood or international sources but also unofficial,ripped off remakes of regional and Bollywood films and music(South Indian films in particular),so that some sort of legal action can be taken today in the age of social media. Justice must be served.
ONCE AGAIN REALLY LUV YOUR POSTS MILA.REALLY UNIQUE,REFRESHING,AND INCREDIBLY WELL WRITTEN AND INFORMATIVE:-))
@ Mila_in_NY:
Thanks for the post :D
I am so glad that you have finally delved into the world of Satyajit Ray.
I am an ardent fan of the man, and love majority of his work. He has contributed in Hindi Cinema as well. Do watch 'Shatrang Ke Khiladi' starring Sanjeev Kumar and Saeed Jaffery. It's such a clever and entertaining film, plus in color too lol
I am really, sad and appalled to hear about the whole 'Alien' episode. I agree with a below comment. Just because they are from the West and ''Hollywood'' - it doesn't give them the right to be all original or correct. Our problem is often when they use things from our side of the world (without permission or due credit), we 'still' rather take it as a compliment at times and forget the immense need to stand up or protest.
Perhaps if this incident occurred in today's time, things would have had a different out come with all the media and social networking sites. But like Ray said, an artist has better things to do.
Do keep more interesting posts coming.
Thank you Mila,
You know we have to do something about this.. Because for HOW long are we going to live with the ill reputation for being a holly wood copy cat?
When it goes the same way.
What they get their Oscars and golden globes and all the accolades from are actually originated from India and Indian subcontinent.
Why should we leave that?
wow didnt kno this...iv seen his "charulata" ..intresting film
Interesting article - however I would advise you to reconsider the title - one reads "Hollywood Rip off" and then sees that the article is about Ray, the first impression could be that you're saying Ray ripped off of Hollywood. A Hollywood rip off means someone copied from Hollywood and not that Hollywood copied from someone.
Just shows how difficult it is to perceive the thin line separating plagiarism from drawing inspiration!
Most Bongs know about this, but it still feels nice to read about it after all these years! Even more, to read it here... :)
If you are into Ray films, I would highly recommend watching 'Kaapurush Mohapurush' and 'Teen Konya'. Both these films are divided into different segments having separate story-lines. But if you are an incurable romantic as I am, and love a healthy dose of laughter, the treatment of Mohapurush and the third segment of 'Teen Konya' (Somapti) are must watches!
enlightened really! thanks..
Satyajit Ray my favorite Hindi director up to now, used to watch his movies some 10 ears ago, still under the impression of his movies
You should have noted that Ray sued the producers of E.T. and eventually they admitted that they were "inspired" by Ray's script and they came to an out of court settlement. This was widely reported at the time and is quite well known to anyone who follows either Hollywood or Ray. I can only guess that you were too young at the time or born after the events. :)
So yes, Ray did get his due, and in public. It is also worth noting that this is only the second case of plagiarism where the plaintiff (i.e., the person who was claiming that his work was plagiarized) won his case (at least in post 1970 Hollywood). The other was Art Buchwald for the film "Coming to America."
Interesting. wow, even the 'great' Spielberg ripped him off. He shd have given credit to Ray.
Hollywood studios do this a lot, if they get a good script and can't make it into a film, they get other writers to write them a similar script and before you know it, you have more than one movie made on the same topic by different people around the same time, eg. capote.
Ray was way ahead of his times. I remember when he was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the Oscars, he gave a touching funny speech even though he was bedridden at the time.
thanks for the info
nice article . something different fron usual yay or nay articles
hmm.. interesting.. very interesting indeed.. i've not seen/read ray's work so cannot make a judgement call. but here's the thing, just because a director is from hollywood, doesn't mean he cannot copy works from outside.. what comes as a surprise is to see that spielberg/ columbia pictures denying ray his due.. that's bad.