This Bollywood film was a remake of the 1982 Tamil film ‘Ilanjodigal’

Adapting a story or tweaking the storyline and rewriting it in another language is a very common technique. After all, the concept of the movie can be enjoyed by people all over the world. However, movies and their producers often run into trouble because they steal the script without buying the rights.

In 1982, Rama Narayanan produced the Tamil romantic comedy film ‘Iranjodigaru’, featuring Karthik, Suresh, Radha and Vijayashanti. The dialogues will be written by Thooyavan and the script will be written by Kalaignanam. It was seconded by N Sakuntala.

The film narrates the story of Sivagami Nachiyar, an arrogant billionaire who lives in his ancestral bungalow with his daughters Geetha and Sita. She is rude and won’t even allow her daughters to look out the window of her house. She wants to marry off her daughters, but she has so far declined and humiliated many suitors. However, as soon as she leaves home for a few days, her daughters fall in love with scammers, Badi Raju and Puturaja. But will the mother accept their relationship? This forms the premise of the film. The film itself received negative reviews due to its cheap vulgarity and exaggerated humor.

The film ‘Ilanjodigal’ has reportedly caught the eye of a Hindi producer who was in Chennai to negotiate the film’s rights. In 1986, Esmael Shroff directed a film titled Love 86. The film starred Tanuja, Govinda, Neelam Kothari, Rohan Kapoor, Farha Naaz and others. The premise of the movie. However, when it was discovered that the film had been made without purchasing the rights, an artist sued the Bollywood producer and filed a case in a Mumbai court, reportedly receiving Rs 60,000.

Similarly, in 1964 Tapi Chanakya produced a film in Telugu named ‘Ramudhu Bheemdu’ starring NT Rama Rao, Jamuna and L Vijayalakshmi. The film became a trendsetter and inspired remakes in various languages, including ‘Enga Vaitt Pillai’ in Tamil and ‘Ram Aur Shyam’ in Hindi.

In late 1972, Ramesh Sippy changed the format of the film and made Seeta Aur Geeta, starring Hema Malini. Reportedly, the producer of the Tamil film was furious with the writer Salim-Javed for copying the story and suddenly redirected ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ to other films such as Ganga Manga in Telugu and Vani Rani in Tamil. They say they have acquired the rights to remake it in the same language.