Well, the title by no means tries to convey that the movie is bad or anything. In fact, I watched the movie last weekend with my School friends in Ahmedabad and completely fell in love with the movie. More specifically, the lucid way in which the movie shows the “peer-pressure” and the mind-set of most Indian homes was absolutely amazing. Being a student in an Engineering College myself, I saw first-hand the reasons why some of my fellow-students took up engineering and also the issues they faced because of difference in their aptitude as against their field of specialization.
Nevertheless, this is not a movie review, a lot of people have already reviewed this movie by now and there is one review in particular, written by a friend of mine at 3 Idiots: A must watch for every Non-Idiot!, which is pretty close to what I would have written, and hence there is no real need for me to have a redundant post. This is however, a post on the recent row that is going on between Chetan Bhagat, the author of the book Five-point someone and the movie’s lead actor Amir Khan, film producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra and director Rajkumar Hirani.
The controversy about the credit stealing sparked based on Chetan Bhagat’s blog post, which contained the statement “Pre-release, the makers made press statements like the movie is ‘very loosely’, or 2-5% inspired by the book”. Also, he seemed to suggest that the movie has almost 70% material taken from the book. This claim was supported by big names like Shashi Tharoor, Veer Sanghvi alongwith various other journalists and fans. Chetan Bhagat also went on to comment that he had put blind faith in the Production unit of 3-Idiots and now he felt back-stabbed since the movie gives the credit for the story-line to script-writer Abhijat Joshi and director Rajkumar Hirani, while he just got a small mention at the end of the movie.
On the other hand, the 3-Idiots representatives, i.e. Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Amir Khan jumped into the fray trying to defend their stand. Vidhu Vinod Chopra almost shouted at the Journalists in Noida that he had read the book and it wasn’t a copy from the book. Amir on his part denied the claim that the movie wasn’t based 70% on the book (without he himself having read the book), and criticized Bhagat’s being “publicity-hungry”, since the movie had become a HUGE HIT. Amir Khan went on to suggest that the Vidhu Vinod Chopra Production House already possesses the rights of the book and there was already an agreement that was reached between Chetan Bhagat and the Production House regarding the rights and the credit-sharing. Amir Khan also charged Chetan Bhagat with trying to take credit away from the 3-Idiots team for coming up with a fabulous adaptation to his book, and that was not expected from a writer of his stature. Finally, Chetan Bhagat stood his ground, trying to defend his stand, with interviews, where he shows similarities in the movie and the book one-by-one. Since Chetan Bhagat was not allowed to see the movie before it hits the screens, he couldn’t object earlier. On the other hand, Vidhu Vinod Chopra closed the topic saying that since they bought the “rights” of the book, it was at their discretion, whether they wanted to copy 5% or 70%.
The Indian Media in its own sense has also added a lot of fuel to the fire and made this a big issue. Also, some of the statements are shown with a bias, which will not resolve the issue easily. All in all, the row is bound to keep going on, at least for sometime now.
Final Verdict:
We are bound to see more fights on this, may or may not be legal, but credits are something everyone involved here is craving for. On a personal note, I realize how painful it feels if you first read the book, then see the movie and check for the kind of credits given to Chetan Bhagat; you will feel saddened.
Nevertheless, I believe, either good or bad, publicity is publicity, and it will help both the movie and the book. But a row about such a nice book and a very refreshing movie does tend to show that for such a fight between the “3-Idiots” Chetan Bhagat, Amir Khan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, my personal rating on a scale of 10 would be “Five-Point-Someone”, I mean “Five-Point-Something”.
4 comments:
I think, Chetan Bhagat is right on his own point of view. But one thing I want to mention is, Book and Movie both have different motto. Book is more for fun where movie has a message and this message makes the movie far better than book.
Moreover, Legally Chetan Bhagat is not coming into picture. No metter how much movie has been inspired from the book.
Blog is very well written but it much more looks like sympathy towards Chetan, which is not needed. :)
But please go ahead with your writing habit, which is inspiring many people to write their own blogs. Go ahead. I am waiting for next one.
I'd like to differ a bit. I dont know why Chetan Bhagat is crying now? Shouldnt he have been more careful when he signed the contract? He was in the driver's seat at that point of time, and I'm pretty sure if he would have insisted on being involved in the process of script writing, they would have given him the due credits.
As far as the similarity between the book and the movie go, I think its more than 7% and much less than 70%. Each party is exaggerating to suit their ends. True, the characters do resemble and a few incidents have been hand picked from the book, but then hey, dont other film makers also lift complete films from foreign shores and verbally claim to have been "inspired"? Atleast these guys had the decency to do it the correct way and acknowledge it in a contract and in the movie credits.
All said and done, this could just be a publicity stunt at the end of the day, with a win-win situation for both - those who havent seen the movie, but have read the book will now rush to see and compare notes, and vice-versa. For all you know, both the camps could be celebrating the boost in profits over drinks at this very moment. And, I am sure you have better things to do than further wasting time on this spat....
It's become a habit in Bollywood to take things and not give credit. Though I believe in the motto " What good is cinema if it trails beind litreature"
But for Bollywood film its all about screenplay, and Chetain is right on point for the credit thing.
And he deserves it.
Well, thanks for giving my blog a publicity ;)
And I agree to jinie, you do inspire many ppl to blog, ppl write comments also of the same length :P :P. well, I am next in line :D
Ya, bollywood gets inspired by hollywood very often. But I guess this case is different where millions of people have read the book and it's visible that the base is taken from the book only.
The first reaction of everybody after watching the movie was: "The movie is better than the book". so it is clear that everybody was waiting for the movie as it is a film on "Five Point Someone".
And if it is a publicity stunt, then Well.. it seems like director has forgotten his own motto... Kabil bano, Kamiyab nahi... :)
So, do we need to sing for Hirani (who seems to forget his own message): "Kaha gaya, usse dhundho...." ;-)
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