Industry facing a distinct lack of original ideas...

One would acknowledge this fact with embarrassment rather than pride that the Indian movie (not using the word Bollywood... We must admit that our film industry is often ridiculed by the name 'Bollywood' a similar connotation to that of Hollywood) still continue to remain mere copies of some Hollywood flicks.
For most movie viewers the three hours escape to the dark dungeons of a cinema hall, stems from a basic need to just beat it. Beat the stress, strain and sounds of everyday life. Get away from mundane, everyday concerns and conflicts. For him the hours spent in celluloid captivity are well spent only if the offerings take him away from his rough and tumble existence, and yet doesn’t throw him into an alien world altogether. Fantasy is fine, even fun, as long as the concept curbs the viewer glued to the screen.
No doubt cinema, used to be an integral part of our lives. It has given masses, clips to laugh, to enjoy, to share good time with their loved ones. It has always influenced the lifestyles, market trends etc. But it’s quite disheartening to note that the modern cinema is losing the grip. The new releases are no longer capable enough to allure the mass and the big reason to this cause is the lack of creativity and originality in the Indian movies.
Indian cinema like a meager automobile company is working on the age-old formula of presenting the previous models with few modifications without realising the requirements and demands of the consumer. Not concerning the new advanced technologies and trends.
For decades Hollywood has inspired Indian film industry. In Hollywood, we see different shades of life in their movies. Be it romantic, action, Science-Fiction film or be it a drama full of emotions or a real life story inspired by a lovely novel. It’s not that there are no flop movies there, but the basic fact is at least they dare to show something different, something original which is very rare in 'Bollywood' (of course with few notable exceptions). The point to note is that there is a fine line between “being inspired” and copying. It’s disgusting that some Indian filmmakers simply resort to copy-and-paste formula rather than putting their own creative faculties to some productive use.
Last year release Partner, for instance, is almost scene-by-scene copy of Hollywood director Andy Tennant’s 2005 romantic comedy ‘Hitch’, starring Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kevin James and Amber Valletta. Similarities between the two movies are quite shocking. Even the camera angles in scenes showing Katrina Kaif’s conference room or the climax scene on a boat are ditto the same as in ‘Hitch’.
Other movies like The Train and Raqeeb were ripped off from Hollywood's ‘Derailed’ and ‘Murder by Natural Causes’, respectively.

But the most traumatising was to see a reputed production house like Yashraj Films back a movie that had very little original material in it. Siddharth Anand tried to play cleverly. Instead of lifting one film start-to-finish, he borrowed from a number of flicks. So while many portions of ‘Tara Rum Pum’ resembled the Tom Cruise starrer ‘Days Of Thunder’, there were scenes and situations in the second half that were shamelessly copied from Italian film ‘Life Is Beautiful’.
But for how long can such shameless pilfering continue? These instances directly question the more than 50 years experience of the Indian cinema, a long time to build a mature, versatile repute. It’s not that we are short of good writers or latest technologies it’s just that we have shunned our imagination run wild and produce something creative, original and at the same time acceptable. We, the people are equally contributing towards this nonsense. We could not differentiate between the real gem and some haphazard sequences of ostentatious display.