'I am not a dog on a leash'

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br />That''s Mahesh Bhatt on why he specialises in rehashing Hollywood features. His latest, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Murder,</span> opens this week. The film is believed to be a copy of Adrian Lyne''s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Unfaithful</span> (Diane Lane, Richard Gere).Interestingly, another director Karan Razdan reportedly said recently Bhatt''s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Murder</span> was a copy of his <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Hawas</span>, which opened last week. <br /><br /><img align="left" src="/photo/593864.cms" alt="/photo/593864.cms" border="0" />Plagiarism charges aren''t new to Bhatt, whose couldn''t-care-less approach remains intact. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Your film </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Murder, Hawas</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""> and a couple more Bollywood films are believed to be copies of </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Unfaithful...</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""> </span><br /><br />I haven''t seen <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Hawas</span>, so I can''t talk about it. I have seen <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Unfaithful</span>. The similarities between the two are fleeting. In both the films, the woman has an extra-marital affair. I have been saying the same thing for <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Raaz</span>, which everyone said was a copy of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">What Lies Beneath</span>. I have assured the producer of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Hawas</span> that my film is different.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">With so many films on the same theme, don''t you think there will be a fatigue factor soon? </span><br /><br />In the early eighties, there were <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Silsila, Arth, Yeh Nazdeekiyan</span> (all based on adultery) one after the other. They all did well. </div> <div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -6"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="34.7%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:=""> <div class="Normal"><span style="" color:="" ffffff="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">RELATED STORIES</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" fbfbfb=""> <div class="Normal"><a href="/articleshow/581578.cms" target="_blank">Unfaithfully yours from B''wood</a><span style="" font-size:=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="/articleshow/582313.cms" target="_blank">''I have no one to sleep with''</a><span style="" font-size:=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="/articleshow/574697.cms" target="_blank">For adults only: skin and sleaze</a><span style="" font-size:=""></span><br /><span style="" font-size:=""> </span><a href="/articleshow/570969.cms" target="_blank">Attack of the clones</a></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Just because there is an extra-marital affair in each of these, it doesn''t mean they are all the same. A film isn''t only about the plot. Or why else will you have Coke, Pepsi and other brands. The same product can be packaged and marketed differently. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Most of your recent films are derived from Hollywood...</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">I have already pleaded guilty. I have unashamedly plagiarised from my own life or looked everywhere else. A lot of my earlier films like </span><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Arth, Zakhm</span><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold=""> are copied from my own life. </span><br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Those are the films people have come to expect from you...</span><br /><br />Why should I live according to anyone''s dictates? I am not a dog on a leash. I refuse to be straight-jacketed. I want to make all kinds of films. And I have paid for films people didn''t like. Those films were rejected. If I did not fall for your praise then, why should I be bothered about the criticism now?<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Did you feel misgivings about Bollywood in Lollywood (Lahore''s film industry) during your Pakistan visit? </span><br /><br />There is some concern among the liberals who are for opening up the doors for Bollywood. But the rest of the industry is frightened of the prospect. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">What are the Indo-Pak projects you are working on? </span><br /><br />There are three in the pipeline. One is a thriller that travels in time. It stars Pakistani actor Meera. My wife Soni Razdan will direct it. The second is set against Partition, in which a Muslim boy saves a Hindu girl. The third is a story I discovered in Pakistan when information minister Sheikh Rashid took me to Lal Haveli, a monument of love, made by a Hindu barrister for a <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">tawaif</span>. <br /><br /><formid=367815></formid=367815></div> </div>