5 adaptations that were turning points for directors

With Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai (based on Costa-Gravas’ Z) becoming a critically acclaimed flick, we list you 5 films that were adapted, plagiarized even, and which became landmarks for some directors

Karz – Subhash Ghai’s rip-off from The Reincarnation of Peter Proud cast Rishi Kapoor who comes back to avenge his murderer from a past life (this avatar was played by Raj Kiran, himself a doomed star of sorts). The film, with its foot-stomping chartbusters, became an instant classic, even spawning a disastrous remake with Himesh Reshamiya at the helm and Urmila Matonkar playing a demented Simi Garewal

Baazigar – The men in white, the director duo of Abbas-Mustan became a name to reckon with by adapting A Kiss Before Dying into Baazigar. It was also a film that made Shah Rukh Khan the star on the rise. The original Hollywood flick, based on a noir thriller penned by Ira Levin, itself had seen two adaptations, in 1956 and then in 1991. So those complaining about Abbas-Mustan should have thought twice, or four times perhaps?

Devdas – At the time of its release it was the most expensive Hindi film to be ever made. Adapted from the 1917 Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay novel, the film was the first colour version of the story in Hindi. However it had seen two other adaptations prior to its release. Despite its lukewarm reaction at the box-office, it made Sanjay Leela Bhansali an auteur in the eyes of many

Khoon Bhari Maang - In pre-copyright days Rakesh Roshan became a name to reckon with by adapting freely Return to Eden – an Australian mini TV-series about an heiress who is thrown to the crocodiles by her scheming husband and who returns to avenge him – into Khoon Bhari Maang. The film, starring Rekha, was a blockbuster.

Sholay – The film opened to a thanda response at the box-office. But word-of-mouth transformed it into a box office sensation that remains unparalleled. The film is borrowed heavily from Spaghetti Westerns, most notably John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven, which in itself was an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film, Seven Samurai. It is the film that launched not only Ramesh Sippy as a doyen of Hindi cinema but also anchored Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini and Amjad Khan as superstars in Bollywood