Saturday, March 15, 2008

Mera Bharat Mahan Copy Cat

We already know of the million billion gazillion Indian programs, movies, music so on and so forth copied from Hollywood and all over the world. The popular programs being Kaun Banega CrorePati, Indian Idol and another one which is a copy of Dancing with the stars. I don't know of others, but I get most of the info from my mom. Whenever she tells me about a new program airing in some channel I feel like...I know this show...wait a minute its the same show I see in ABC channel..hmmm...And all those times I feel so horrible. I wonder if we completely ran out of ideas or did we seriously stop thinking of new ideas and resort to the easy way of just Indianizing a show which is already a huge hit in the West. The problem lies in the fact that not many in India know about the original shows here and the producers take advantage of that fact.

Anyways moving on, now Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass Se Tez Hai? adds to the growing list of copies. You don't have to think too hard to find out which program is this a copy of, as its name is a literal translation of the US/Canada hit Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader ? And when in west, everyone other than big movie stars host or be part of the hit shows, we here always try to get big stars to pull more viewers. Bottom line - We already know the show will be a hit, now why not make more money by making SRK or BIG B or some other star the host ? I'm sure there are equally talented people in India waiting for their big breaks.

Believe me, this has nothing to do with SRK. Infact I love to see SRK on screen and he rocked big time with his crude humor in Filmfare awards. My anger is against all those producers who watch the original versions and decide to make an Indian version of it.

Americans envy our culture, tradition, and history. We all should be proud of having that. But when we look at everything else, it feels like a mere rip off of things happening in other parts of the world, and that disheartens me and forces me to think Mera Bharat Mahan Copy Cat. Its just sad man !!! We need some original stuff guyzzz

7 comments:

sista said...

It is kind of sad that it usually takes our moving to "these parts" to truly value our own...ok ..."culture" -let me wince and use that much abused word since no other term comes to mind readily. I wonder though, is it a case of "hereness" and "thereness". When we were there we valued things western more and now that we are here it is the reverse!

Having said that I will root for original thought no matter where I am - Heck, I'd rather be original in Hell than a mindless herd follower in Heaven!

Alas, in the franchised, formulaic, success-at-all-costs oriented world of today, originality is not only a virtue fast disappearing, it is in danger of no longer being considered a virtue!

- S i R i S h - said...

Brilliantly put Sahar...I esp luved the line "I'd rather be original in Hell than a mindless herd follower in Heaven!"...and very true man...only after moving here do we value our culture more. As the saying goes...The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to say this, all this dialogues sounds good “I'd rather be original in Hell than a mindless herd follower in Heaven!”. But one fare question to u guys. How many of us really feel like using our brains for our own country??? All real brains are ready to work or sell their intelligence to other country’s rather than own country.. Just statement will not work man… try to prove ur words &make a change…

- S i R i S h - said...

Dude...Let me be really honest with u...whenever I go for vacation to des, which i'm always excited to, I find people thinking abt our country, its prosperity and doing something good for it much LESS than when I'm here. In other words people over here actually think about doing good for India, making a change, donating, and stuff like that. My friend in Tennessee sends money every month for some unknown child's education, I donate to Sankara Nethralaya to light up someone's life...Believe me..I wouldn't have done that if i was there, coz I wouldn't have either had that kinda money or that thought...and there would have been several other tensions...so...its just not statements brother...the bottomline is WE CARE..we we wanna make it better...through our voice..our words.

Anonymous said...

I was totally focusing on knowledge....

Anonymous said...

India might be copying, but most of the show you think of as "US Shows" are also copies! Who Wants to be Millionaire, US Idol and Dancing with the Stars for example were all originally conceived and broadcast in the UK. So I don't think using these concepts in India is a bad thing. Anyway the Indian shows, thought have the same concept, are rooted in Indian culture not US culture so lets not over react.

- S i R i S h - said...

so thats even worst then...we chucked out the british from our country and now we are copying their programs :)...actually the issue is not about "from whom we are copying". the issue is about why should we copy in the first place...we'll soon lose originality is my point. now see how rakesh roshan got a big blow in his bald head...soon others are going to follow.