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CG.com Copy Cat Crown (Part 6) - MS Raju

APK | June 22, 2007

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MS Raju

Telugu film industry, our beloved Telugu movie makers have a knack of copying without being caught. Many of our big makers watch Hollywood, Hong Kong and other movies relentlessly and frame-to-frame photocopy action sequences or native-ise stories for our benefit. Assistants watching and summarizing stacks of DVDs is a common sight. In fact, one famous production house hires people just for this purpose! Buying hundreds of DVDs from Chennai (where you get it cheap) and working on other people's ideas to use in our very own Telugu flicks is not uncommon.

But there is a producer, no doubt a successful one, who is all set to beat everyone hollow. That's because he doesn't look any further than Telugu or Hindi movies itself. MS Raju picks some novel ideas at times like Deviputrudu or Pournami that flop and sinks without a trace. Then comes the time to choose storylines that have already worked. Crores are at stake here, and there is no area to experiment.

Nee Sneham starring Uday Kiran and Saajan (starring Madhuri-Salman-Sanjay Dutt) have an uncanny likeness. In Saajan, Madhuri doesn't know Sanjay is her benefactor while in Nee Sneham, Aarti Agarwal doesn't know Uday Kiran is her benefactor. A case of mistaken identities and a love triangle apart, even the fact that one of the protagonists is psychically challenged is the same.

Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana is based on another Salman Khan movie-Pyar Kiya Tho Darna Kya. While Salman and Kajol meet at college, Siddharth and Trisha meet in a wedding. Arbaaz Khan as Kajol's protective older brother and Srihari as Trisha's doting sibling are also the same. While Arbaaz sets tasks like taming a wild horse for Salman, Srihari makes Siddharth work on the fields.

MS Raju

Varsham, one of MS Raju's biggest hits to date, is nothing but Anil Kapoor-Madhuri starrer Tezaab. While Madhuri is a dancer, Trisha is an actress. Storylines tally, and the characters are also picked from the original while making certain marked changes. The climax fight has Chunkey Pandey getting stabbing for his friend, while that character is eliminated in Varsham. Prabhas gets stabbed here, and continues to fight like Maximus in Gladiator. Prakashraj and Anupam Kher are the one and the same characters. The love track has a different theme though, with the rain acquiring a separate personality for the lovers.

Finally take his recent release, Aata, the icing on the cake as far as copying themes is concerned. Telugu Cinegoers across the world were shocked to see the similarities between Aata and Gudumba Shankar, which itself was not a super hit in fact. The male lead positioning himself in the villain's house is the first similarity. Romancing his lady love right under the obsessive villain's nose is something Siddharth seems to have learnt after watching Gudumba Shankar (since his character is that of an avid Cinegoer in Aata). The home minister's son (Munna) in Aata and Ashish Vidyarthi in Gudumba Shankar are the same characters.

Moviemakers sure get inspired and use scenes and storylines like Trivikram, Gunasekhar. Some copy frame to frame like say, 10 The Strangers. Using plots and characters from our own Telugu and Hindi sure-shot successful movies is something that only MS Raju can pull off.