Zinda which was inspired from Oldboy and Ek Villain from I saw the Devil, Bollywood has regularly borrowed from South Korean thrillers.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Oct 25, 2016 14:16 IST
Bollywood has always been quite liberal with 'borrowing' material from the West, with both central plots and music. Right from Bappi Da copying Koi Yahaan Nache Nache from 70s hit Radio Star by The Buggles to Kamal Hassan adapting Mrs Doubtfire in the Bollywood setting with Chachi 420.
ALSO READ: Hrithik took inspiration from Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, to prep for his blind character in Kaabil
ALSO SEE: Hrithik's hooded look in Kaabil's motion poster will give you goosebumps
The problem is that the copyright law is so weak in India, most producers get away with 'inspiration' and 'plagiarism'. However, after the economy opened up in 1991 Hollywood films became more widely watched and not just by the elite few. Therefore, Bollywood filmmakers had to get more creative and steal from foreign language films, because most people watched the standard Hollywood fare.
advertisem*nt
The Bhatts and Sanjay Gupta have majorly influenced Bollywood to look at South Korean thrillers, tone them down and make them less gory for the Bollywood audience. Hrithik Roshan's Kaabil is rumoured to have been inspired by 2014 thriller Broken. Let's look at six other Bollywood films which were inspired by South Korean films.
1. Zinda (2006)
After adapting Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs into Kaante starring Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, which Quentin himself loved watching, Gupta moved on to the cult South Korean thriller Oldboy directed by Park Chan-wook. The film kept the grim mood of the original, toned down the violence and the sex for the Indian audience. Zinda didn't nearly have the shock-value that Oldboy did and it is perfectly understandable.
2. Ek Villain (2014)
Mohit Suri's superhit Ek Villain starring Sidharth Malhotra, Riteish Deshmukh was inspired by 2010's I saw the Devil. The film was a much more sanitised version of the original, but Riteish Deshmukh won accolades for his portrayal of the serial killer and a hit soundtrack meant the film was a commercial success.
3. Jazbaa (2015)
Touted as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's comeback film, Jazbaa was directly copied from Seven Days which follows the story of a lady lawyer who has to win an unwinnable case to save her daughter who has been kidnapped. The Bollywood version saw Aishwarya screaming beyond compare and Irrfan just standing there while she did it.
4. Murder 2 (2011)
Based on The Chaser, this Emraan Hashmi-starrer didn't compromise on the adultery thanks to a sporting Jacqueline Fernandez. Also Prashanth Narayanan playing a whack-job did a decent job.
5. Ugly Aur Pagli (2008)
Starring Ranvir Shorey and Mallika Sherawat, this movie was directly inspired by My Sassy Girl. The Bollywood version almost follows its Korean counterpart scene to scene except for the Anu Malik song 'Main talli' which is an obvious Bollywood addition to the original.
6. Rocky Handsome (2016)
The film starring and produced by John Abraham and directed by Nishikant Kamat was an official remake of the South Korean film The Man from Nowhere. The film follows a former hitman, after a druglord abducts an eight-year old girl who he grows fond of, over the film.
Published By:
AtMigration
Published On:
Oct 25, 2016
--- ENDS ---
