Bollywood film posters that were copied

On his birthday, Sanjay Dutt shared a new poster of his upcoming film 'Bhoomi' and the poster has given new fodder to some people to make an issue out of it. It is being said that Dutt's new movie poster has been copied from Liam Neeson's 'Grey'. The poster has a striking resemblance to the Hollywood poster, however, Anubhav Sinha, who has no association with the project came out to support Sanjay Dutt and the new poster. He also shared Hindi film posters with a close-up theme similar to that of 'Bhoomi', throwing in some cuss words for good measure.

Actor Emraan Hashmi unveiled the first look of his upcoming film ‘Captain Nawab’. The actor will turn producer for the war drama, that is based on real events in the backdrop of the 1999 Kargil War. The film will be directed by Tony D’Souza. ‘Captain Nawab’ poster sees Emraan dressed in army gear. But on closer inspection, it appears that he plays a double agent of sorts as he can be seen wearing an Indian army and Pakistani army uniform. While the poster is intriguing, it received flack for being a rip-off or rather ‘inspired’ from a video game poster. Emraan’s ‘Captain Nawab’ poster bears much resemblance to the ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ video game that also features a soldier sitting in a similar position with guns in both hands. Irrespective of weather or not the makers agree to this, Bollywood has had a long history of seeking inspiration from international movie posters. Scroll down to see more…

Varun – John‘s 'Dishoom' poster strikingly similar to a still from a Steven Spielberg movie

We are well aware of Bollywood’s fascination with Hollywood and the n number of times we have been “inspired” by them. Be it the film’s story or the poster or the first look, we’ve seen them all, the most recent being the first look of Rohit Dhawan’s upcoming directorial venture, Dishoom which stars Varun Dhawan, John Abraham and Jacqueline Fernandez. The pic of John and riding a bike and Varun in the sidecar with a whole lot of people after them was pretty impressive. While we loved the whole action-packed backdrop and the thrill of it, the first look instantly reminded us of an iconic scene from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. Whether it’s a mere co-incidence or an intentional “inspiration” we leave for you to decide.

Read on to find out about more such films that have conveniently taken cue from Hollywood posters...

'Phantom' poster copied?

The poster of Kabir Khan's Phantom, starring Katrina Kaif and Saif Ali Khan, seems to be inspired by the poster of Homefront. Katrina and Saif are seen blindfolded with what seems to be the Indian national flag, on the poster. On the poster of Homefront, too, the actors of the film are blindfolded.

However, this is not for the first time that a Bollywood movie poster has sought inspiration from Hollywood film posters. Posters of films like PK, Bombay Velvet, Badlapur also seem to have been copied. Let's take a look...

The first romantic look of the Bombay Velvet couple, Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma, became the centre of attraction because of its uncanny similarity with 1949 film Barsaat’s poster, where Ranbir Kapoor’s late grandfather Raj Kapoor posed with Nargis.

While one cannot deny that the poster’s idea has been lifted from the Raj Kapoor film, we wonder if Ranbir Kapoor did it intentionally to pay the legendary actor another tribute after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, where the Kapoor lad was seen sporting an ‘Awaara’ tattoo on his wrist.

Read on to find out which film of Anushka Sharma had its poster copied from a Hollywood film…

According to a report on Missmalini.com, the poster and the plot of Anushka Sharma's NH 10 seems to be inspired by Hollywood film Black Widow. The makers of The Avengers had released seven limited edition posters featuring Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow in 2012, among others, the report stated. And the poster of NH 10 has an uncanny resemblance to it. Buzz also suggested that even the trailer of NH 10 is conspicuously lifted from the 2008 Hollywood film, Eden Lake, the report concluded.

Let's take a look at a few other copycat films of Bollywood that drew 'inspiration' from international posters.

Guess what's common between Hollywood flick Inception and Bollywood film, Badlapur? Right from the tonal quality of the poster, to the aerial shot of the city and the inscription of the film name, everything seems to be the same. The Varun Dhawan-starrer is an edgy thriller and the poster seems to encapsulate the essence of the genre. However, the striking resemblance between the two posters seems to point out an obvious case of seeking 'inspiration'.

The poster of Aamir Khan's PK raised eyebrows and not just for the obvious reasons. The film's poster bears an uncanny resemblance to a poster of an album cover of a Portuguese musician named Quim Barreiros. The PK poster has Aamir posing with an old transistor covering his modesty. The old album cover that was released way back in 1973 shows Quim holding nothing but an accordion to hide his bare essentials.

PK wasn't the first time an Aamir Khan film was accused of copying a poster. Way back in 2008, when Ghajini released, its poster made headlines for wrong reasons. Aamir Khan had buffed up his body and wanted to put it on display on the poster of Ghajini, but a striking similarity to the poster of Hulk made the proceedings sour for Aamir Khan's fans.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra may have scored it big with Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, but one of the film's posters wasn't spared when it was released. When the film's poster with Farhan Akhtar running with fire around him was released initially, it was criticised for being unoriginal and copied from Hollywood flick Ghost Rider. The Ghost Rider poster shows a motorcycle on fire, and so the comparison between the two cannot be ruled out. Although, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag got a lot of acclaim after it released, the 'inspired' poster didn't go down well with many.

Shah Rukh Khan's films never fail to create a stir and the same thing happened when the first poster of Happy New Year released. Farah Khan's film's first look made noise for many reasons and one of them was how the poster was 'copied' from Cash - a 2007 film directed by Anubhav Sinha. Although the film had bombed at the box-office, the poster of Happy New Year brought it back in the limelight. As seen in the image above, the stellar star cast of the film is seen posing in a huge vault which is quite similar to the Ajay Devgn-starrer Cash.

Bipasha Basu-starrer Creature 3D had been postponed for a long time before the world got a glimpse of the film's poster. However, it looked very much inspired from the Hollywood flick Jeepers Creepers. Directed by Vikram Bhatt and starring Bipasha Basu and Imran Abbas Naqvi, the poster of Creature 3D looks like a copy of the 2001 Hollywood horror movie.

Shraddha Kapoor, Siddharth Malhotra and Riteish Deshmukh starrer Ek Villain did well at the box-office, but the film came under the radar of film critics when a rather 'inspired' poster of the film was released. The poster of Ek Villain created a controversy when people said it looked like a rip-off of the poster of Step Up. The poster features Shraddha Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra standing in the same pose as that of the lead pair on the Step Up poster. It wasn't just this one, another Ek Villain poster that had half face of Sidharth on one side and half face of Riteish with Shraddha in the middle, was also a rip-off of another Hollywood movie Face Off starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta.

Produced by Atul Agnihotri and Alvira Khan, O Teri was a comedy film that released in 2014. While the film failed to leave an impact, the film's poster definitely caught everyone's attention. The poster of O Teri looked similar to the poster of Hollywood movie The Other Guys that was released in 2010.

Madhur Bhandarkar's Heroine features in the list of copycat Bollywood posters as well. While the poster of Heroine has Kareena Kapoor lying on a bed with her legs high up on the wall, the cover of Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi's novel The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay is no different. The novel The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay was released in 2009 while Heroine is a 2012 film. The much hyped film failed to sizzle at the box-office and the inspired poster only added to its misery.

We once again have Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor on our list here as their film Ra.One and its poster made headlines at the time of its release. The poster was a complete rip-off of the popular Hollywood film Batman Begins. Directed by Anubhav Sinha, Ra.One featured Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal. The poster of Ra.One was criticised for being heavily inspired from director Christopher Nolan's 2005 film Batman Begins starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Ken Watanabe. Take a look at both the posters above and decide for yourself.

Zoya Akhtar's film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara may have inspired a lot of us to take memorable trips and holidays but the film's poster itself seems to be inspired by another film. Take a closer look at the poster of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and it looks like a copy of Lords of Dogtown, a 2005 Hollywood film. The ZNMD poster has a bare chested Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar and Abhay Deol walking together, while the poster of Lords of Dogtown has a similar look and feel.

Two posters of Emraan Hashmi and Jacqueline Fernandez starrer Murder 2 resemble two different foreign film posters. One poster has Jacqueline Fernandez and Emraan Hashmi in the forefront and several hands coming from the bark of a tree are visible. This poster looks like a rip-off of the poster of Antichrist, a Danish film that was released in 2009. Another poster of the film has Jacqueline Fernandez sitting in front of a dressing table, bare back with a mirror in her hand that has a reflection of Emraan Hashmi in it. This poster looks like it has been lifted from a South Korean film Bad Guy. Unlike this poster, where the actress is sitting completely naked, Jacqueline has covered up her modesty with a red satin backless gown.

Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra starrer Anjaana Anjaani wasn't a film to remember, but the film's poster seems to be etched in our memories especially since it looked like a carbon copy of that of a Hollywood film An Education. Starring Carrey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard, the posters of An Education that was released in 2009, and that of Anjaana Anjaani which came out in 2010, look very similar. Both the posters have the lead pair lying next to each other in similar fashion.

Apart from the sizzling chemistry between Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori in Kites, another thing we cannot forget about the film is its poster. The poster of Kites has Hrithik and Barbara in a sizzling pose. Surprisingly, Hrithik Roshan's film has taken a leaf out of one of Hollywood's romantic film The Notebook, which stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.

Mallika Sherawat's film usually make a lot of noise for obvious reasons, but the actress and her film Ugly Aur Pagli with Ranvir Shorey came under scanner for its poster. The poster of Ugly Aur Pagli looked like a copy of the poster of a Hollywood film 'Til Death.

It's surprising how many Kareena Kapoor films have made an entry into this list and here's another one. Kareena Kapoor and Akshay Khanna starrer Hulchul bears an uncanny resemblance to the poster of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Like the poster of the Canadian-American rom-com, the poster of Hulchul has the lead pair dressed in a wedding outfit, while the rest of the family members feature on the left hand side.

The posters of Mallika Sherawat's Hisss that was released in 2010 and King Arthur, a 2004 film, are strikingly similar. Draped in a red cloth Mallika made headlines with this poster back then.

Poster of Konkona Sen Sharma, Ajay Devgn and Paresh Rawal starrer Athithi Tum Kab Jaoge and the poster of Mandy Moore, John Krasinski and Robin Williams starrer Licence to Wed are too similar to ignore. Released in 2007, the poster of License to Wed has Mandy and John lying in bed with Robin Williams lying between them. A similar picture has been painted by the Hindi film poster where Ajay Devgn and Konkona Sen Sharma are lying in bed with Paresh Rawal.

The classic romance of Rose and Jack Dawson is hard to recreate, and although Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor starrer Mausam didn't even attempt to do that, the poster of film is similar to that of James Cameron's famous film. The poster of Titanic shows Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet posing together as if waltzing with the picture of the infamous ship in the foreground. The poster of Mausam shows Shahid and Sonam in a vintage look with another picture in a similar fashion in the foreground.