Key Characters:
Aamir Khan: Respected actor. He can go wrong at times too. And he did, with a disappointing performance in 3 idiots. Tried too hard to pull off a 20-something. Having been christened ‘the perfectionist’, he is known to take his roles very seriously and go deep into the character he is portraying. But here, unfortunately the only thing that got in deep was the botox in his face. Has an opinion on almost anything. Last I heard the man gave his expert opinion on the isotropic pressure forming of complicated shape body using Bingham fluid.
Raju Hirani: Director par excellence. Started out editing ad films, and even acted in one. Known to work extremely hard on his scripts. Mastered his craft to the extent where he can make the most boring of storylines come alive on screen. But he has clearly forgotten that he still needs boring storylines from somewhere to make his movies.
Chetan Bhagat: IIT pass-out, IIM pass-out and a successful investment banker. And then he began writing. (Quite a sad day for English Literature that.) His first book ‘Five Point Someone’ is the largest selling fiction book in the India. After which he just didn’t stop writing, even if he had nothing to write about.
Devaiah: Studied film making at FTII. Showed tremendous promise during his younger days, even winning the National Award while still in college. Also got an Academy Award nomination for a short film he directed during his early years. But now, he’s just another has been trying to come to terms with his creative burnout. Last directed a good movie in 1993, an Anil Kapoor starer, ‘1942: A Love Story’. Since then his main job involves collecting awards at functions whenever Raju Hirani fails to show up. He also took time off from this busy schedule to produce good movies like the Munnabhai series, 3 idiots and Parineeta. Basically living on somebody else’s glory.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra: Small time copywriter in an advertising agency.
(Oops… Sorry Mr. Chopra... It does hurt when you aren’t given credit for what you’ve done, right? Good or bad.)
The recent spat between the makers of 3 idiots and Chetan Bhagat rings up an important issue. Are writers today given their due in Bollywood?
Chetan claims that his name doesn’t appear prominently in the credits, and that it is stashed away somewhere in no man’s sight. The makers counter by saying that his contribution wasn’t important enough to be mentioned in the main credits, as their movie borrows only “5% of the book”, ‘Five Point Someone’.
After having read the book (and almost having killed myself for doing so), I must admit the movie is unquestionably based on the book. In fact, it borrows heavily from the book. And also, certain scenes are shamelessly borrowed from international TV commercials too. The idea of three friends finding themselves in an IIT hostel, one of them romancing principal’s daughter and certain other episodes in the movie definitely trace its origins back to the book. Having said this, I must admit, hand on heart, this movie is definitely better than the book.
Yet the makers decided to credit Vidhu Vinod Chopra as Associate Screenplay writer, well ahead of Chethan’s contribution. Chetan’s was tucked away in the end as part of the rolling credits which invariably is never played in the cinema halls.
Now it’s a different story that they acquired movie rights of the book from Bhagat for a meager sum of 10 lacs. All this for a movie that grossed 100 Cr at the box office in just 4 days! I have heard of stories in Bollywood where writers have been humiliated and exploited. Without taking any names, there have been instances when leading film makers have taken the credit for writing the story and screenplay by paying peanuts to the lesser known original writers, whose only worry is clearing pending EMIs.
Having watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire, and read the book Q&A (the book which the movie is based on), I can tell you with certainty that the movie isn’t an exact replica of the book. If it was, it would’ve turned out to be a better movie.
For example, the whole Frieda Pinto angle never existed in the book. Same holds good with Irfan Khan’s character in the movie. And Jamal’s friend never betrayed Jamal in the book. And Jamal is not Jamal in the book. He is Ram Mohammad Thomas. In fact the endings don’t even match or come close to being on the same page.
The script for Slumdog was written from scratch, new characters woven in, the story made more cinema-friendly, and only the core essence of the movie and the book remained the same. Thinking back, I feel there is more of ‘Five Point Someone’ in ‘3 Idiots’ than there is ‘Q&A’ in ‘Slumdog’. Yet, when Slumdog won the Academy Award for the best screenplay, the first person to be thanked by the screenwriters was Vikas Swarup, the author of Q&A. Swarup was also part of the main credits, and it clearly mentioned to the viewer that the movie is based on the book, Q&A.
The question here is not whether the movie is similar to the book by 5% or 50%. The question here is about learning to give credit where it is due. In fact, it should be the answer. It causes great amount of heartburn to note that writers in Bollywood these days are treated like cow dung in remote villages. You know it adds immense value to your crop but you’re just not willing to pay for it.
