To catalog the ever-increasing practice of borrowing stories from Hollywood movies in the Indian film industry, a New York student launches the webs first directory of movie plagiarism in Bollywood".
Suffern, NY (PRWEB) February 20, 2005 - Inspired by famed author Barbara Taylor Bradford's lawsuit against Indias Sahara TV drama Karishma" for allegedly stealing the storyline from one of her novels, a student from New York has launched a website that catalogs Bollywood films that have been inspired by Hollywood flicks.
It's wrong to even use the word inspiration here," says Haydur Agha, the creator of BollyCat.com. It's really stealing someone else's creation and molding it to fit the Indian taste without ever officially mentioning or paying for the rights to the original content. And it's not fair to the fans either," argues Agha, adding that Bollywood fans deserve better".
The website currently lists over 100 movies and encourages visitors to submit more flicks for listing. Films listed range from classics like 1954's Shree 420" to the upcoming Mein Aisa Hi Hoon". This is really a new concept, since I'm not aware of any other similar project on the web." adds Agha, a 22 year old computer major at SUNY Rockland, who has enlisted the help of his Indian and Pakistani friends on campus to find eligible movies for his website.
Bollywood is the nickname given to India's movie industry, which by the number of productions is the largest in the world. Agha believes that plagiarism is prevalent in India due to the lack of proper intellectual property laws and an outdated and cumbersome legal system. Its really hard to prove plagiarism in an Indian court, and thats exactly why Barbara Taylor Bradford lost her suit. But all this needs to change if Bollywood wants to go global. And thats my goal." he concludes.
Besides the movie directory, the site also features a questions & answers section on the Indian film industry in general.
The website can be accessed at http://www.bollycat.com.
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