Chetan Bhagat vs 3 Idiots – Truth or Publicity Stunt?
The first day of 2010, starting off the year with a big shot to bollywood, from a writer who is popular for his Hinglish stories.. and their controversies! Do you guys know what Plagiarism is? Many might have heard this about online content, people copying the content without leaving any credits, or sometimes when they are not at all allowed to copy it. The same is now being seen in Bollywood.. taking the story from a novel is common, but without a good notice or credit to the original novel writer, is what we are seeing lately.
The actual controversial story
Its about Five Points Someone – A novel by Chetan Bhagat, and 3 Idiots – A movie produced by Rajkumar Hirani and script written by Abhijat Joshi.
Check these 2 posts too -
Where “Five Points Someone” and “3 Idiots” were similar
Where “Five Points Someone” and “3 Idiots” were different
Chetan Bhagat says he needs nothing, but was sad and hurt when he found that the movie makers have not given any credit to him in the starting of the movie (i guess he wanted to see something like in the movie “Hello”), and says he was told that the movie was just 2-3% similar to the book so the issue would not be big. But after watching the movie, he could see his name in the list of names at the end of the movie, where most of the people would not care to read the names after all..
He was not allowed to read the script of the movie, also wasn’t allowed to watch the movie prior to its release. He still has nothing much to say, so he shared how he’s hurt, writing it in his blog. Chetan claims that the makers of the movie promised to treat him well till the movie runs all across, and they would give him enough credit.
And when Abhijat Joshi is the writer of the script, why isn’t he coming out and telling everyone that its his original work, not copied from anywhere?
Talks and Rumors about this story
- Aamir says Chetan Bhagat had accepted that the story in the movie was different from that of the book. So why is he creating a scene?
- Aamir claims that as 3 Idiots was a big success and Chetan is trying to gain publicity through all this publicity stunt.
- Some say that Chetan Bhagat was paid a sum for the story base, and agreement was accepted and signed. If that’s true, then why is Chetan making this a big issue?
- Abhijat Joshi is silent. Says he’s a writer and is paid to write, not to talk in public. Not a good way to back off everything..
- Chetan wants the truth to come out.. nothing else!
My take on the whole issue!
Its not easy to talk on one side. No one knows what Chetan Bhagat and Vidhu Vinod Chopra have talked before the movie was made. No one knows whether they had actually signed any agreement and was Chetan paid, and told that the movie in the beginning itself would show Chetan’s name anywhere. If these points are clearly talked about in the media, one can understand whose fault it is.
Aamir Khan, the Mr. Perfectionist is being unnecessarily involved into everything. Its not his movie, he is just an actor like Sharman Joshi, Kareena, Madhavan and Boman Irani. Vidhu Vinod Chopra is trying to make Chetan silent and pressed with the help of Aamir?
Why is Chopra shouting on the media? because he doesn’t have anything much to explain?
Aamir says, it took 3 years for Abhijat Joshi to write the story.. seriously if i was the script writer with some talent, i would have copied and changed all this within 6 months time. Not 3 years.. Mr. Abhiram, please accept that the story did not come from your brain, but you just tried to re-write something original.
Bloggers say they get paid to write but still they get the credit from the original site where their content is posted. This happens only if the agreement is set in that way, but not always. So we can’t see what’s right and wrong until Chetan Bhagat shares what he and the makers of the movie agreed for, when the movie was being made.
And Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s site just shows the agreement between both of them, where Chetan was paid Rs. 10,00,000 for usage of the story. Also it was mentioned that the following format would be used to give credits to Chetan and his book -
Based on the novel
Five Points Someone
By Chetan Bhagat
This was not followed, and I guess that’s why Chetan Bhagat was hurt, and publicly opened up the issue. Ok i would agree with few that Aamir being in the scene, this could be a publicity stunt, but Chetan Bhagat isn’t a newbie writer.. he has good fans and the book was popular already. In what he is talking right now, there is some sense that he is been cheated. Isn’t it??
Here is a video of Star News interview of Chetan Bhagat and Aamir Khan’s claims -
A press conference a few hours back, shows how Vidhu Vinod Chopra bashed the media people, when asked about all the fuss.. but the final words have not come out from his side or from Chetan’s side yet. I guess saying “Shut Up” to the media isn’t an answer.. no one would keep silent.
What’s your say on all this??
I remember reading five point someone during my fourth or fifth year of college. Every room of the hostel had one copy of the book and it was a huge hit even then when Chetan Bhagat had just started off as a writer. Every body enjoyed the book and could relate to it or any one of the characters. It is not a plain or a lame book as claimed by some writer named Bhavna in Times Now news show. We loved it then because of the entertainment quotient that it had and the fact that while reading the book one would forget abt his other problems like the exam the next day or viva.Definetely Chetan Bagat does not need a publicity stunt. He is a writer and to write the way he writes, with an element of rawnesss and reality to it, is difficult. Now he is no William Shakespeare and cannot churn out the best drama of all times. But he did a more than decent job with the book. To say that a writer, on whose book your movie is based, is a publicity seeker displays your shallowness and lack of insight. It was not expected of Amir Khan. He is respected as an actor. So also he must learn to respect other artists and creative minds. Please do not say Mr. Raju Hirani or My Vidhu Vinod Chopra would have thought of a story line like this all on their own had the book not been written. For that matter even dialogues have been translated from English to Hindi and tossed into the movie. Its a shame to see an actor who call himself a method actor say that he did not read the book on which his entire movie is based. How unethical can you get?
For me its just fun to see both of the parties fighting like this… If Chetan is really so very pissed and it been 2 years since he is fighting it out n stuff, y was he so excited about the premier of the Movie??? why didn’t he mentioned/tweeted about his disappointment then.. he saw it then n there only rite… Why wait for the film to become such a big hit and then bring this up.. he tweet about lot of thing he could have just expressed his disappointment then…..
but again.. if VCC thinks the film is a original masterpiece.. then why did they invited Chetan for the premier.. what was his role in the film.. I still remember even when the cast was not finalized for the film it was published as a film based on Chetan’s FPS then why so much fuss..
I guess both party wants credit for the success and all its doing is that helping both to get more publicity… may be coz of this some people who have watched the film will end up reading Chetan’s book and those who have already read it will re-read it..just to confirm how different or who similar are both… helping both the film and the book…
For me Both are good. the book in itself is a good read and the film a must watch… i would give credit to Joshi and Raju for the script… and Chetan for the original plot… Peace PLz…
Read the agreement carefully and you will know that chethan was promised a mention in the rolling credit and that is what was done. He signed the agreement. So what is this hue and cry for? And please google for his past interviews about 3 idiots and you will know the truth. Try to watch the interview he did with http://www.bollywoodhungama.com ……No ambiguity there ….
http://bit.ly/5zO1Ps
from the horse’s mouth, so to speak!
Chetan should get his due, Bollywood has known to cheat their writers. If this is his plight imagine about others.
Bhagat likes publicity we all know that, he prolly did not read the Contract before he signed it, but that’s another thing.
Let me ask a simple question out of 500 regular movie goers if you ask them if the movie was based on a book and who wrote it, do you think they would have been able to answer if the controversy hadn’t happened?
I think this is the way that Bhagat wants to let india know that 3 idiots was based on a book he wrote. And a quick fact
40% of regular indian Tweeters had no clue who the hell Bhagat was till his Twitter trend appeared.
I guess he knew if you look closely his follower count grew a bit after the whole blocks thing…
THis is jsut another PR stunt
P.S
I dint use the words Chetan any where cuz the author of this blog happens to have the same name. Let there be no Confusion. XD
Cheers
Happy new year
P.S
I just have one thing to say about this issue. It was very immature for both parties to come out like the way they did. It is very unprofessional on the concept. First of all we all agree that the book and the movie was great. When I read the book, I enjoyed it a lot but when I watched the movie I enjoyed it more and that was not because of the book. It was credit to whole team of 3 idiots and that’s a credit you cannot take way. I want to ask Chetan Bhagat are you sure that who wrote these many best sellers year after year, that you came to public because you felt hurt. Seriously, You are a very emotional man and please try to get some sensibility in your head. Vidhu and Raju should learn acccept to let go, Dude your movie is a fucking mega blockbuster. Give some credit to everybody. I know you did what you were suppose to do but just feel little generous, so this cry baby can show his face to his mother. Please get over it and do a great party all together.
I want to personally say something to person who wrote the main article, man you should not say or comment on something until you are sure of it. Because I am very aware that you have not read the book yet. And Chetan Bhagat did got his credit according to the contract.
PJ,
Do you think I would just post this without reading the book? I read the book and have watched the movie. Rajkumar Hirani has posted all the signature proofs of the agreements and the credit was given as per the agreement, in the rolling credits of the movie. So there’s no point..
I think both d parties got carried away or sumthin.Chetan is a fab writer,i just luv all his books esp fps.But Rajkumar hirani n co r also gud,d movie is good(“all is well” concept,every1s performance,d music are awesome).Though a lot of filmipanti in it,which i hate abt d movie.And wat Raju hirani had been sayin dat d movie is only 2-5 % of d book is rubbish(actually its 60-70). I wanna kick him 4 dis.Finally i wud say fps is lot better dan 3 idiots(wat i feel personally,very strongly though)…I feel bad 4 chetan for d filmmakers didnt him an openin credit…Moreover chetan was talkin abt all dis very politely,while Raju n VCC wer being very rude(i hate dem 4 dis)….Chetan ur d best…