Director Roland Joffe loves India and Indian films. One is not sure anymore if he loves Abbas-Mustan as much as loves the rest of the Indian movie industry. Eighteen years ago, he shot The City Of Joy with Om Puri and Shabana Azmi in Kolkata (then Calcutta).
Now he’s shooting a Maratha period film, Singularity, with Bipasha Basu in Australia.
Bipasha and Roland hit it off instantly in Brisbane. While shooting, they got down to discussing each other’s work. And that’s when Bipasha unwittingly let the cat out of the bag.
Says a source, "Bipasha and Roland were discussing one another’s work. Roland asked Bipasha to name her most well-known films.
Bipasha immediately named Jism, Raaz, Ajnabee, Dhoom 2, Shob Charita Kalponik (Bengali) Corporate, Lamhaa and Race. Roland got interested in Race and Bipasha narrated the film’s plot to Roland, who seemed more than casually interested in Race."
At a point during the narration Joffe yelled out, "Hey, that’s my film!" Before the startled actress could ask Joffe what he meant, he told her that his 1999 film Goodbye, Lover had the same plot as Race.
Says the source, "Roland was shocked to know that Race had ripped off his film without his permission."
Apparently the director of such renowned films as The Killing Fields and The Mission now intends to take action against copyright infringement.
What Joffe would be less amused to know is that a majority of Abbas-Mustan’s film are unauthorised ripoffs of Hollywood films. Abbas-Mustan’s Ajnabee was Consenting Adults, Aitraaz was the desi version of Disclosure and Daraar was ripped off from Sleeping With The Enemy.
With American studios clamping down on illegitimate adaptations, Abbas-Mustan have planned an official remake of The Italian Job. But now that Joffe has belatedly become aware of his film’s ripoff, he’s apparently contemplating taking delayed legal action.
