Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai is an upcoming Bollywood film directed by Ravi Chopra, starring
Salman Khan, Lara Dutta,Govinda, Tabu,and Boman Irani. The film is expected to be released on
2 April, 2010.
The
director was served with a legal notice in 2009 by 20th Century Fox, which charged that the movie
blatantly plagiarized the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny. Chopra and the
production company,
Mumbai-based BR Films, denied the charges in court in May of 2009; the movie's release was to be delayed
until June of 2009 by order of the Bombay High Court.
Fox sought damages of $1.4 million; this was the first time a Bollywood filmmaker was taken to court by a
Hollywood company over the remaking of a film.
Fox had given
Chopra permission "to make a film loosely based on the Oscar winning movie" but
concluded the final product was a "substantial reproduction" of the original.
The
Kolkata Telegraph, listing a number of other
Bollywood movies "inspired" by Hollywood blockbusters, noted that the case would "decide whether Indian filmmakers can continue to get their
'inspiration' with impunity, or buy rights the legal way."
