Every producer of Hindi films swears that the storyline of his film is 'hatke' from the other films. The director seconds his opinion and the writer, who actually churns out a 'hatke' script, smiles from ear to ear as the producer eulogizes the plot of the film.

But the fact remains that there is a dearth of good stories in Bollywood. Which is exactly the reason why a majority of Hindi films are finding it difficult to complete even a face saving one-week run at the box-office.

A peculiar trend is seen in Bollywood these days. A majority of writers are copying successful English films and rehashing them for the Indian market. This is not a new phenomenon, but it has caught on in a big way of late. For, the roots of every second movie can be traced to some English film.

• RAJU CHACHA was 'inspired' by three English films - THE SOUND OF MUSIC, LION KING and HOME ALONE.
  
  
• The Sunny Deol-Om Puri flick, FARZ, was a mishmash of LETHAL WEAPON.
  
  
• KUCH KHATTI KUCH MEETHI, with Kajol in a dual role, was a lift of Disney's THE PARENT TRAP.
  
  
• Mahesh Bhatt, very proudly, hogged the credit for writing the script of KASOOR, which actually was a copy of JAGGED EDGE.
  
  
• The Sunny Deol starrer CHAMPION was an imitation of the Kevin Costner starrer
  THE BODYGUARD.
  
  
• Aditya Chopra's MOHABBATEIN was not an original piece of work either. It had shades of DEAD POETS SOCIETY.
  
  
• The utterly avoidable KAHIN PYAAR NA HO JAAYE was a poor cousin of the Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore-Christine Taylor starrer THE WEDDING SINGER.
  
  
• DHAAI AKSHAR PREM KE, directed by Raj Kanwar, and KUNWARA, from the David Dhawan factory, were facsimile of A WALK IN THE CLOUDS.
  
  
• Rakesh Roshan's long-in-the-making love triangle KAROBAAR was a poor xerox of INDECENT PROPOSAL.
  
  
• After Indianising KRAMER VERSUS KRAMER (AKELE HUM AKELE TUM), Mansoor Khan came up with the desi edition of WEST SIDE STORY (JOSH).
  
  

And now for the list of forthcoming films that are 'merely inspired' by the Big Brother across the Atlantic:-

• Ramgopal Varma's PYAAR TUNE KYA KIYA, directed by Rajat Mukherjee, is similar to the Michael Douglas-Glenn Close starrer FATAL ATTRACTION.
  
  
• The plot of the Amitabh Bachchan-Manoj Bajpai starrer AKS is also said to be similar to John Woo's FACE OFF.
  
  
• Rajiv Rai's PYAAR, ISHQ AUR MOHABBAT is believed to be a take off on THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY.
  
  
• The Abbas-Mustan directed AJNABEE is reportedly inspired by CONSENTING ADULTS.

There's no denying the fact that getting inspired by an English film is not a crime, but it is indeed disgusting to see a writer hog the credit for dishing out a story that is actually a clone of Hollywood's celluloid capers.