Bollywood films and plagiarism

The Hindi film industry centered in Mumbai, commonly known as Bollywood, is an extremely prolific industry. However, constrained by rushed production schedules and small budgets, certain Bollywood filmmakers have been known to resort to plagiarism. They may copy ideas, plot lines, tunes or riffs from sources close at hand from other Indian films or foreign films (e.g. Hollywood, British and East Asian cinema etc). This was leading to constant criticism towards the film industry despite these rarity of such plagiarism. However, some may argue that other film industries copy films as well.

In past times, this could be done with impunity. Copyright enforcement was lax in India. As for the Western sources, the Bollywood film industry was not widely known to non-Indian residents (excluding the Soviet states), who would not even be aware that their material was being copied. Audiences may also not have been aware of the plagiarism since many audiences in India were unfamiliar with foreign films and music.

While copyright enforcement in India is still somewhat lenient, Bollywood and other film industries are much more aware of each other now and Indian audiences are more familiar with foreign movies and music. Flagrant plagiarism may have diminished—however, there is no general agreement that it has. [cite web|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=46715385|title=Plagiarism issue jolts Bollywood.|publisher=The Times Of India|accessdate=2007-10-17]

Films alleged to contain plagiarism

References

External links

* [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1219782.cms Baghban, Black, Pyar mein twist plagiarised from Kannada and English originals - Kavita Lankesh]