Now Bollywood films inspire TV show titles

By Radhika Bhirani

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) While Bollywood filmmakers are lifting subjects from Hollywood and movie titles from old Hindi songs, the Indian television industry is taking inspiration from movies for suitable titles for its shows.

Shah Rukh Khan-starrer box office hit "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi", which created a major buzz at the box office last year, has managed to inspire not one but two shows on the small screen - STAR One's "Love Ne Mila Di Jodi" and Zee TV's "Zing Ne Bana Di Jodi".

Though the former is a fun tale of young lovers, the latter is a reality TV series that pits eight uptown girls and an equal number of small town boys and tests their equation.

Similarly, names of shows like STAR Plus' "Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat" and NDTV Imagine's "Bandini" too resemble titles of Bollywood films.

"Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat" was a disastrous 1996 film that marked Rani Mukerji's debut in the Hindi film industry, while the namesake show is the love story of a village belle with a prince.

"Bandini" was a 1963 cult film by legendary filmmaker Bimal Roy. The Ashok Kumar and Nutan-starrer was about a sacrificing woman, but the serial, which has Ronit Roy in the male lead, is about a young girl forced to marry a guy thrice her age.

There are other shows like Colors' "Balika Vadhu" and NDTV Imagine's "Seeta Aur Geeta" - the titles of these series are inspired by films and the subject is also in tune with their respective eponymous narratives.

The 1976 film "Balika Badhu", which featured Sachin and Rajni Sharma, was about a young girl who doesn't understand what marriage is all about. The ongoing serial, which is set in Rajasthan, is also about child marriage.

According to Purnendu Shekhar, the writer of "Balika Vadhu", there was no intention to copy the name of his show from the film.

"During one's life, lots of films and lots of TV shows are made and it's no big deal if somewhere, some topic of a film or TV show matches with one another. When we decided the title for our show, its suitability was of utmost importance and so we finalised on 'Balika Vadhu'," Shekhar told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

The concept of "Seeta Aur Geeta", one of the evergreen entertainers starring Bollywood's 'Dreamgirl' Hema Malini, being turned into a television series was first-time TV producer Sunil Bohra's idea. He especially bought the rights of the film to use the storyline and characters for his show.

Hema Malini played identical twins in the hit film and the serial is also about twin sisters living completely different lives without being aware of each other's existence. Anjori Alag is reprising Hema Malini's role in the series.

• Television