INSPIRED BY VIR SHANGVI's COUNTERPOINT, HT
Starring:
Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra as 3 Idiots
Chetan Bhagat as Wronged Writer
3 Idiots is a wonderful movie and I am in awe of Aamir Khan when I saw the movie. But it has left a bad taste post the credit-fiasco it ran into, with Chetan Bhagat claiming that he has not been duly credited by the producers of the movie.
The story so far....
The movie 3 Idiots is released with no opening credits to Chetan Bhagat or his book 'Five Point Someone: What Not To Do at IIT', though it finds a mention in the closing one. Chetan chooses to make his outburst public and comes out cursing the producers of the movie. The Producers and Aamir Khan (Actor), then comes out all fuming against the writer in a news conference, citing the movie is partly inspired by the book and was made a movie largely due to the creative inputs by Hirani and Joshi (the writers of the movie) and Chetan's book was not a script/screenplay material and needed a lot of working. Some bad blood is drawn, some publicity is surely ensured. So the cash register would be ringing a little more, if it has not already done an overtime. For those who are not aware of an opening credit, it is the credits shown at the beginning of the movie.
Now who is to decide how much did the movie actually inspired and how much was invented. Or for that matter would there have been a movie without this book in the first place. Did Chetan handle the situation in the right way?
I am not here to take sides or colour the much talked about episode in black and white. But all I want to say is that the matter has not been handled with class by either party. Slumdog Millionaire played around the storyline and still credited Vikas Swarup. It didn’t cut the profits that the movie made. Neither, would the bottomlines for 3 Idiots would have been impacted by this act.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra has been a volatile person, in career and in character. So when we see him making movie like Parinda, he also came up with a cropper like Eklavya. His outburst at the news conference in Noida, was uncalled for.
I even don’t understand Chetan Bhagat’s outburst, couldn’t this have been handled with elegance, which I am sure he doesn’t lack with.
The only hindrance that bollywood is facing in its path to become world’s most successful film industry is lack of good writers. It would stay forever if we don’t give the due credit.
I would like to mention VIshal Bharadwaj’s name here. In his movie Kaminey, the opening credits were given to Cajetan Boy’s short story Koho. However, those who have read the story would understand the story has been completely changed and been handled in a completely different way than Boy had done in his novel. But Vishal certainly rose above the rest when he credited Boy.
I think we need to understand that the fiasco has been blown out of the proportion and should have been ended with a short apology from the Producers or inclusion of Chetan Bhagat’s name in the credit.
Guys please grow up!!!
P.S.: Hope Mr Sanghvi doesn't make a noise over this... I have tried to credit him duly..
