Director Kunal Kohli has dismissed comparisons between his Shahid Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra starrer Teri Meri Kahani and Taiwanese film Three Times.
Both Shahid and Priyanka are seen in three different roles over three time spans — 1910, 1960 and 2012 — in the film, akin to Three Times which features three separate love stories chronologically set in 1911, 1966 and 2005, with the same lead actors, Shu Qi and Chang Chen. The 2005 film was a hit and won several awards.
However, Kunal says his film is different. “I have not seen the film (Three Times) to begin with but someone told me about it while I was making the film and I happened to read about it. But I would still say our film is completely different. It is just a coincidence,” he said.
“There is no similarity between the two films. Now-a-days if you want to remake a film, you just buy the rights and make the film. So if I wanted to make Three Times I would have bought the rights,” he said.
Citing an example, Kunal said, “Like when I made Hum Tum there was a film called Before Sunset that came six months after, and it had the exact opening like my film…where the guy has lost his love and he has released a book and the film starts with the press conference and he talks about the love he has lost and that is how exactly Before Sunset also started.”
As for the first look trailer, there were few sections which in a way seemed similar to Shahid’s last film, Mausam, where the hero happens to meet the leading lady, Sonam Kapoor in three different situations. But Kohli says that every love story in a way has the basic element of love, meeting and parting ways.
“To meet and part ways is there in every love story, be it Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Fanna, Hum Tum or Veer Zaara. Whatever popular love story you take..a love story is all about meeting and parting. But how they meet, how they part ways is different in every love story and even in this story, it is different,” he said.
The film is up for release on June 22.
Tags: Interviews Kunal Kohli Mausam Priyanka Chopra Shahid Kapoor Three Times
CHORI AUR SCENE-A-ZORI
A dear writer friend and I (both of us atheists) were just the other day wondering if we should walk barefeet to Siddhivinayak and do some maha yagya and make some offering to the gods of cinema so that we stop getting screwed over, again and again by the well known bollywood maibaaps.
This morning when I read this rather disturbing piece in DNA, where a ‘reputed’ director, Mr Kunal Kohli who has made ‘iconic’ films like Hum Tum, Mujhse Dosti Karoge etc has made some disgusting personal remarks against me, wrt to the plagiarization complaint I have filed against him at the Film Writers’ Association, I actually thought of making this long pending trip.
I wish I was big enough to buy (a certain section of) media that does a one sided story without even bothering to ask me for a quote or a verification. Back in the days when I was a reporter, it was a mandatory exercise.
I shall not go into the details of the case but I do know that, living in this age of internet, mere computer se jo aah niklegi, woh Mr Kohli ke kaano tak zaroor pahunch jaayegi…so here goes…
Mr Kohli, planting stories, making personal attacks and trying to threaten me with your defamation dhamkis is not going to stop me from protecting my script, which, at one point, you would remember, you had loved and had wanted to buy immediately. It’s funny how you had asked my agency how much the script would cost if you bought only 40 per cent of it because you did not want to shell out the money I had asked for. Script hai, maibaap, koi bhaaji tarkaari nahi, ki aap usko tukdon mein khareed lete..
When I had requested you for a top billing in the credits, since you wanted to buy my Bound Script (Story, Screenplay, Dialogues), that I had spent four years of my life writing, you had told me that you will count the number of scenes each of us had contributed and take a call after making some changes that you wanted to. Again, bhaji tarkaari nahi maibaap, ki aap naap tol ke credit dete. I’m truly impressed with your obsession with the numbers though. Reminds me of a dear aunty ji, who would haggle with the sabziwaala for an hour and keep munching on the matars and carrots from his cart, as she continued to argue. By the time she had walked away, mostly without buying anything, she would have already consumed about a half a kilo of sabzi.
Anyway, let’s forget that conniving auntyji who stole those precious matars from the poor sabziwaala. Let’s come back to you .
Mr Kohli, if you are thinking that I am trying to humor you, the royal highness, with all these middle class sabziwaala examples, please do not be mistaken. I take these allegations very seriously and will not rest until I prove you wrong. And unlike you, I will take the right course, the lawful course.
My industry friends are trying to source (or have they already sourced…oops!) the various drafts of your script that you have shared with different people in the industry and I can assure you a 100 and 10 per cent (since you are so obsessed with quantifying everything) that there are parts in your script which are direct lifts. A little birdie also tells me that you forgot to even change the name of your lead character (which is exactly what my protagonist is called) while doing so. And that’s not even lazy writing, that’s lazy stealing!!
Please know, dear sir, that I am going to dedicate the next few hours, days, months, years, whatever it takes….to take each page of your script and trace it back to its source. The inbox is already bursting at its seams :).
And just so you know, if getting money and publicity was my intent, I wouldn’t have gone to FWA and filed a complaint. I would have filed a suit against you just before the release of your, oh so original film!
Please know that making personal attacks does not change facts.
My stories are like my children, Sir, whom I have nurtured over the years, with- everything –I- have. I am not going to let anybody hurt them!
[P.S- Oh by the way, I forgot to tell you Sir, in all this tu- tu-main main, that I am a big fan of your fillums. Especially, “When Harry Met Sally”….err, I meant “Hum-Tum”,
“Three times”…err…sori saar, I meant “Teri meri Kahani”.
“Mary Poppins”…sori sori….this time I really meant “Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic”
“The Truth about Cats and Dogs”….again sori saar, my mishtake, “Mujhse Dosti Karoge”
“Eye of the Needle” ….errrr this time I really meant “Fanaa”. Sincere Apologies!! ]
With Love!
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