Chetan Bhagat cheated by the makers of ‘3 Idiots’?
January 1st, 2010 - 7:07 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt ( 3 comments )
Mumbai, Jan 1 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The author of the IIT-campus capers book ‘Five Point Someone’ is Chetan Bhagat and he has been allegedly cheated badly by the people who adapted his cult book into a movie ‘3 Idiots’. The book became a bestseller and as it dealt with the escapades of the IIT-guys so it was a great and a racy read as well. After attaining a cult status, there was a buzz for quite some time about its adaptation into a movie too. And for all the fans of the book and the new author, it was music to their ears.
The book was picked up by the Munnabhai director and producers Rajkumari Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, for the adaptation. And the best part was that they also managed to rope in the thinking actor ‘Aamir Khan’ for the movie. It was great news for Chetan Bhagat as well, that his book was being made into such a grand movie with the top stars. However the honeymoon didn’t last long. Because the producers refused to acknowledge ‘Five Point Someone’ as the basis of the whole movie, and barely credited Chetan Bhagat in the movies credits also.
They first claimed that the movie was based on the book, but later the tag line was shifted to ‘initiated by the book’, which upset Chetan and the book’s fans no end. Despite repeated pleas, Chetan Bhagat was not shown the screenplay of the movie and he was also shown the movie only at the premiere, even though he had requested to be shown the movie earlier. The producers had said that the movie has hardly 3-5% of the book, but the author and his family were amazed to see that almost the whole movie was based on the book itself, with crucial complete sequences being lifted straight out of the book.
The fans of the book saw the deplorable plight of the hapless author and also raised a voice in protest, but hardly anything has come out of it.
- Here's proof of our pact with Chetan Bhagat, says Hirani - Jan 02, 2010
- Vidhu Vinod Chopra loses cool over '3 Idiots' credit row (Lead) - Jan 01, 2010
- Films on my books increase my reach: Chetan Bhagat - Nov 22, 2010
- '3 Idiots' totally different from 'Five Point Someone': Sharman Joshi - Dec 24, 2009
- Vidhu Vinod Chopra loses cool over '3 Idiots' - Jan 01, 2010
- Chetan Bhagat is hungry for publicity: Aamir Khan - Jan 02, 2010
- I don't understand this percentage controversy, says perturbed Hirani (Interview) - Jan 03, 2010
- Vidhu Vinod Chopra apologises for his Shouting bout - Jan 02, 2010
- Making novel into movie is difficult, says Madhavan - May 31, 2010
- Making of '3 idiots' now in a book - Jun 08, 2010
- Aamir Khan unveils first look of '3 Idiots' in Mumbai - Nov 05, 2009
- Chetan Bhagat Speaks Out On 3 Idiots Credits Controversy - Jan 01, 2010
- Another First For 3 Idiots - Jun 09, 2010
- Aamir is a very powerful man: Chetan Bhagat (Interview) - Jan 04, 2010
- WILL THERE BE A MUNNABHAI 3? - May 15, 2010
Tags: aamir khan, adaptation, bestseller, capers, chetan bhagat, cult book, cult status, escapades, great news, hirani, honeymoon, plight, producers, quite some time, rope, screenplay, sequences, tag line, top stars, vinod chopra
January 1st, 2010 at 7:39 pm
We think that Aamir has to clearly recognise and admit that the whole story / idea / premise / concept for 3 idiots has been taken from chetan’s five point someone - period. These denials from the film camp are looking increasingly sheepish now, as they try and take credit for someone else’s idea. The story was by chetan bhagat, and he should’ve been appropriately credited for it at the start of the movie the same way the producer, director, musicians etc. have been.
Let’s not forget, this isn’t the first time Aamir has tried to wrestle credit from someone else, how can we forget Taare Zameen Par, where AK ousted Amole Gupte after effectively stealing his story, ideas, and finally - the directing credit. He accuses Chetan of seeking publicity / wanting to sell more books.. this might have been believable, had he not been India’s largest selling English-language author.
Abhijat and Raju Hirani have adapted Chetan’s FPS, they need to give credit where credit is due. Come on guys, have some integrity!
January 1st, 2010 at 9:59 pm
As Chetan has mentioned in his interviews that just the read the book and the see the movie. It will be completely apparent and obvious that the movie is a complete adoptation from his novel five point someone. Yes the story line has been changed and tweaked, but all the characters and a number of scenes are ditto from the book. He deserves full credit for story of the movie. The producers should have mentioned it is based on his novel upfront…what’s the big issue in it. Not sure why the film producers are getting into this controversy after making a masterpiece of a movie. The movie is running housefull even in Singapore for a week now.
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:03 am
I have read the book and thought it was brilliant. No question the movie is largely based on the book. The backgrounds of the main characters in the movie, especially Raju, excluding Aamir Khan himself, Raju’s suicide attempt, stealing of question paper, story behind Virus’s son’s death…and many many more key points in the movie. How can that amount to 5% of the book????????? The movie team should not be a spoilsport not to acknowledge Chetan Bhagat. The movie is great fun. But cheating the author is cheap and a real shame.