The death of Jeffrey Archer at 86 closes a five-decade publishing career, but for Hindi cinema watchers it revives one of the stranger cross-border quarrels in popular storytelling. The British author, whose publisher HarperCollins said he died suddenly and peacefully at home on Monday, spent years arguing that Bollywood had taken plots from his bestsellers without permission.
His final novel Adam and Eve was already being promoted as the last book of his career.
He was blunt, calling Hindi filmmakers ‘a bunch of thieves’ and insisting that several of his novels had been used without permission.
The two films he named
Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, the 2011 Yash Raj Films romantic crime comedy directed by Maneesh Sharma, was his most specific modern example. Archer said the film echoed Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, his 1976 bestseller about people who have been conned coming together to take revenge on a conman. The film changed the genders: three women pursue the conman played by Ranveer Singh, with Anushka Sharma, Dipannita Sharma and Parineeti Chopra in the cast.
Khudgarz, Rakesh Roshan’s 1987 directorial debut, drew his other public comparison. He said its story of rivalry and ambition between brothers, played by Shatrughan Sinha and Jeetendra, resembled Kane and Abel, his 1979 novel about two men from different backgrounds whose lives collide. Amrita Singh, Govinda and Neelam also featured.
What stands out is what did not happen:
- Archer made the claims publicly, but no court ever ruled that either film plagiarised his work.
- Ladies vs Ricky Bahl was an official Yash Raj Films release.
- The accusation rested on plot similarities, not a legal finding.
An accusation, not a ruling
That distinction matters. Bollywood has a long, often informal relationship with outside source material, from credited remakes to stories that simply travel. Archer’s complaints were loud, but they stayed in the public square rather than being tested in a courtroom. For audiences, the line between copying a plot and reusing a familiar con-revenge framework remains open to interpretation.
The contradiction that made the story stick
Archer’s criticism did not stop him from wanting an official place in the industry. He sought Indian partners to adapt his work, reportedly sold adaptation rights to First Among Equals and the short story A La Carte, and was in discussions involving Kane and Abel. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta had earlier developed a television project loosely based on that novel. Archer also planned a book set partly in India and built around a Bollywood heroine, though it was never published.
For an author who branded the industry thieves, the sustained interest in Bollywood was the genuine twist: he accused it of taking his stories while simultaneously hoping it would bring them to the screen officially.
The parallels he saw were never adjudicated. What remains is a question about influence, coincidence and the global circulation of plots.
Source: India Weekly
Comments