Ghai reached settlement with 20th Century Fox to clear release of Hello Darling

Bollywood films being inspired by Hollywood movies is a phenomenon as old as the hills. However, in the recent past, more and more filmmakers are going the right way and procuring legal rights to remake rather than blatantly plagiarising Hollywood films.



Mukta Arts' production Hello Darling which released last Friday also found itself in a soup few days prior to its release when 20th Century Fox claimed that the film is a copy of the 1980's Hollywood film Nine to Five (9 to 5). Both the films apparently deal with 3 working women out to teach their perverted, sex-starved boss a lesson. 20th Century Fox would have stopped the release of Hello Darling; however a timely intervention and an out of court settlement by Subhash Ghai helped the film release on its scheduled date.

When we contacted Mr. Subhash Ghai, he didn't deny the news, "Yes we've had a settlement with 20th Century Fox. When our team of writers started writing Hello Darling there was no deliberate intention to take references from any particular film. However, when I saw the first cut of the film last month, I did notice that it was similar to some extent to the 1980's Hollywood film Nine to Five. That's when I spoke to the people at 20th Century Fox. Since the film was nearing release, there was no question of acquiring rights at that point of time. However, we mutually decided to arrive at a settlement so that the release is not affected. They were kind enough and as scheduled our film released on the said date i.e. Aug 27."