In 2009, co-producers, business partners, and friends Akshay Kumar and Vipul Shah discovered, to their amused horror, that a new Bengali blockbuster Poran Jay Joliya Re (PJJR) had blatantly lifted the plot, scenes, even frames and costumes from Namaste London, without a by-your-leave from the producers.
Vipul Shah had no clue about this Bengali film until he read an interview with the film’s producers blatantly admitting to the fact that there were similarities between their Bengali film and Namaste London. Shah took into confidence a large number of friends and advisers in Kolkata who saw the film repeatedly and made a report on the similarities. The copied scenes ran into 5–6 pages in the report! Vipul flew to Kolkata to initiate legal action. Shah’s legal advisers in Kolkata were confident that they had ample evidence of the Bengali film being copied from Namaste London.
Even the Bengali hero (Dev) makes his entry wearing a kurta and kada. Why would a film set in Bengal have its hero in a Punjabi get-up like Namaste London? The Bengali film was strewn with what Vipul saw as blatant examples of plagiarism, enough to initiate legal action against the Bengali producers.
In an angry conversation with me from 2009, Vipul Shah proclaimed he didn’t want monetary compensation. “The Bengali film is a big blockbuster. It has made huge amounts of money. A compensation of 5–10 lakhs means nothing to them. Other filmmakers would be encouraged to plagiarise knowing all they’ve to do is shell out a small compensation. We want to make an example of this case, so that regional filmmakers would think twice before lifting Hindi films. The penalty should be severe.”
Ironically, Namaste London on release was said to be inspired by Manoj Kumar’s Purab Aur Paschim. That was not correct. There were no similarities between the two films except for the fact that in both cases, the innocent hero goes to England and confronts the cultural diaspora.
Namaste London was inspired by a friend of Akshay’s who underwent a similar experience.
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Said Shah, “I disapprove of plagiarism in any form or language. And by taking on the people who’ve copied my Namaste London in Bengali, I’m actually making sure none of us in Bollywood ever falls for the temptation of taking the easy way out to success by simply borrowing a successful film.
