Novelist and former British MP Jeffrey Archer has accused Bollywood directors of stealing his storylines and making millions from them. The bestselling author, who was jailed for four years on perjury charges in 2001, was asked in an interview with DNA, whether his novels would make good Hollywood film adaptations. “Forget Hollywood, just look at your Bollywood,” he replied. “These bunch of thieves have stolen several of my books without so much as a by-your-leave.”
He named two films that he claimed were ripped off from his novels – “Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl” (2011) and “Khudgarz” (1987). Archer said the former film starring
Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma was directly inspired by his 1976 book “Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less.” Archer’s story follows four men who plot to sting the conman who stole their money, while in the film, Singh was a conman targeting women who gets a taste of his own medicine from some of his victims.
Archer told DNA he believes “Khudgarz,” starring Jeetendra and Shatrughan Sinha is also a rip-off of one of his 1979 best-seller “Kane and Abel,” the story of two men born on the same day on opposite sides of the world, whose paths are destined to cross in the ruthless struggle to build a fortune.
After seeing loose adaptations of his books, Archer said he is now officially selling film rights, with novel “First Among Equals” and short story “A La Carte” sold to producer Sheetal Talwar in 2013, and director Hansel Mehta intending to buy the official rights to “Kane and Abel” following his own TV adaptation in 1999, UK’s Daily Mail reported.
The 74-year-old, who was in India for the promotion of his latest book “Mightier Than The Sword,” the fifth in the Clifton Chronicles series, went on to say there were “several other” films which had taken his plot lines. He also admitted to be on the lookout for Bollywood film companies interested in buying production rights for the first book in his series, “Only Time Will Tell.”
However, when asked whether he would write an Indian story Archer said, “Many feel that just because I’ve sold 50 million books in India, I should do an Indian novel, and I say no. All writers should write about milieus they know and understand, or the writing will suffer, he explained, adding that the next book in the Clifton Chronicles series will include eight chapters set in Bombay around a Bollywood heroine.
According to The Guardian, plagiarism is a sensitive subject for Archer, who has often appeared to merge fact with fiction. Author Kathleen Burnett, who won a short story competition he judged in 1983, later complained that aspects of her plot appeared in a later book of Archer’s called Just Good Friends. She was told by his publishers that “there is no copyright in an idea,” the paper reported.
Critics also noted a remarkable similarity between “The Accused,” the play in which Archer plays an actor accused of murder in one of his own plays, to the 1957 courtroom film “Witness for the Prosecution,” based on a short story, and later play, by Agatha Christie.
Bollywood too is no stranger to plagiarism charges and has a history of generously borrowing from Hollywood and other foreign language films. Recently, Aamir Khan starrer “PK” was embroiled in a plagiarism controversy by Kapil Isapuri, who claimed that the filmmakers copied certain characters, ideas and scenes of the film from his book “Farishta” that was published earlier in 2013.
Author Chetan Bhagat was slammed for plagiarism by an English scholar named Dr. Birbal Jha for his latest book “Half Girlfriend.” According to news reports, Jha, who is the director of British Lingua in Patna has allegedly said that the plot of “Half Girlfriend” has been lifted off from his play “Englishia Boli,” which was out before Bhagat’s much hyped novel released.
Director Mohit Suri has also been accused of borrowing generously from Korean films. His latest film “Ek Villian” was said to be heavily inspired by Kim Jee-Woon’s 2010 film “I Saw The Devil,” while the plot for his film “Zeher” was lifted from the Denzel Washington’s “Out Of Time,” while “Murder 2” was said to be inspired by another Korean thriller “Chaser.”
Although Murder, the first film in the series was inspired by the Hollywood film, “Unfaithful,” producer Mukesh Bhatt bought the rights of the Colombian thriller “The Hidden Face,” for the third installment of the film. Bhat’s recent production “Citylights,” was the legal remake of the 2013 British-Filipino film “Metro Manila.”
Staring this trend however was filmmaker Karan Johar, who bought the rights to remake “Stepmom” for his 2010 film “We Are Family.” Johar and producer Guneet Monga also bought the rights to remake the French film “Intouchables.” Directed by Suri, the film will star Aditya Roy Kaur and Varun Dhawan. The original story revolves around a wealthy business tycoon who is rendered paralytic after a paragliding accident and his camaraderie with his black male nurse. The story touches upon sensitive themes of friendship, trust and honesty between two who are poles apart.