Monday, October 7, 2013

Poster watch : Forgery or prototype?

Its not too often that a financial paper really talks about bollywood. But I guess they do when it becomes a case of plagiarism or issues of originality. The Economic Times carried a poster of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming movie 'RamLeela', accusing it of ripping off the exact look of the 1939 classic 'Gone With The Wind'.




When I tweeted about this news, many had mixed reactions. While some echoed ET's sentiment that its a complete rip-off, others agreed with my view that it could possibly just be a common lovers' pose. I mean isn't this style of holding a loved one an expression of passion? Just as we can't possibly declare every romantic movie to be a rip-off of the other boy-meets-girl stories previously written. There's got to be overlaps.

This pose reminds me more of the famous R.K. logo. Did anyone raise a hue & cry about that?


Such a beautiful posture of passion and love, just what Raj Kapoor films were all about. It is a pure case of the director's choice, about which element from his movie does most justice to his story. That's what posters are about. A visual / pictorial summary.

As if this wasn't enough, another poster of RamLeela recently got criticised by Hindustan Times to be 'inspired' or copied from the popular American TV series, Revenge.


The leading couple Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone are seen surrounded by a heap of guns with Ms. Padukone's skirt spread out for some great cinematic effect. Which seems to be a similar case with the poster of the Madeleine Stowe starrer Revenge. To me it seems like a simple case of co-incidence. What's one got to gain by imitation, especially involving no common denominator to the themes of the two? All art, as they say, is inspired anyways. This one, being from the stables of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is going to be no less than epic. The posters truly emanate that.

P.S.: Love the styling and lehenga by designer Anju Modi. And need I say anything about the apparent chemistry between the two? Could burn up some posters for sure.



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