In an industry where plagiarism is not considered a serious enough issue, producer Vipul Shah has made music composer Pritam, who is working on the music of his upcoming film, Action Replay, sign an indemnity clause stating that he will solely be responsible for his compositions and the producer-filmmaker will not be liable if the compositions are found not to be original.
Ever since Shah dragged Shree Venkatesh Films to court for lifting material from Namaste London for a Bengali film, Poran Jai Jaliya Re and emerged victorious, he has been very careful about copied material in his films. The filmmaker doesn’t wish to take any chances with his new Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer.
Vipul has admitted to taking a written indemnity from Pritam that not a single song is a copy because the producer doesn’t know when the music director picks up a Taiwanese, Chinese or Syrian song claiming it to be his own. Because of the absence of strict laws, Pritam and many others in Bollywood get away with plagiarism.
Pritam, meanwhile, had no problem signing the indemnity as he thinks it is every producer’s responsibility to ensure that his film is foolproof. He feels that the producer shouldn’t always be held responsible if something else in the film is accused of lack of originality. For example, if the film’s story is accused of a lift, the writer should be held responsible.
At the same time, Bengali filmmakers are crying foul that Vipul’s Action Replay is actually a copy of the Hollywood film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Vipul’s office is preparing a strong defense against this claim. But some people who have seen portions of Action Replay say that it resembles HG Wells’ Time Machine and not Benjamin Button.
-Sampurn Media