Like most of the rest of the globe, Indian actor Vinay Pathak remembers finding Call My Agent, a French blockbuster, amid the rampant Covid-19 pandemic. He phoned actor and director Rajat Kapoor, a close colleague, and told him it was something they could work with. After all, the two had previously worked together on another French song, Le Diner De Cons, to create the sleeper smash Bheja Fry in 2007.
Pathak was told by Kapoor that he had just finished filming the Hindi version, in which he plays Mathias Barneville, a super-agent at the talent agency ASK, which handles half of the French film industry in fiction, with cameos by stars including Jean Reno, Jean Dujardin, Isabelle Hupert, and Monica Bellucci.
Stars like Farah Khan and Richa Chadha wander in and out of the scenes in the Indian version, which follows a similar plot. Will it keep its witty lines, celebrity culture reflections, and insider gossip? Even though the original’s global popularity has assured that a film and another season are on the way, we’ll find out when it arrives on Netflix shortly.
For a long time, Bollywood got away with plagiarising Western entertainment, sure that no one would notice. In Bandra, Mumbai, the Sarvodyaya video library record revealed which filmmaker was watching which type of film to copy from. In the era of the Internet, however, passing off imitation as the highest form of flattery is difficult. Originals must be obtained from the creators and inspirations must be recognised. And modifications must be carried out faithfully, but not to the exclusion of local sensitivities.
Director Sudhir Mishra is adapting Fauda for India, and it is set in Kashmir, where human stories will be portrayed from both sides of the divide, the local populace and the security forces. Sameer Nair’s Applause Entertainment has acquired the copyright to both Call My Agent and Fauda, as well as Luther, the BBC’s star vehicle for Idris Elba.
