Warner Brothers has commenced proceedings against “parties involved in the production and distribution of a movie entitled HARI PUTTAR” because the company feels that the name of the Hindi film is too similar to that of its world famous young wizard.
While the next hearing is on September 2, CT gets in touch with the film’s London-based director, LUCKY SINGH, to check out whether luck is favouring him in this battle.
What’s this title controversy all about?
I can’t talk about the legal aspect. It’s a matter of phonetics. In India, the word puttar is used as endearingly as the Americans would use the words ‘dude’, ‘sweetie’ and ‘honey’. Puttar is used in Punjabi to refer to a little boy or a young adult. A person needs to know the Indian ethos to be able to understand this. Moreover, the name of our protagonist is Hariprasad. In short, his mother calls him Hari Puttar.
Indian directors often welcome negative publicity too. How about you?
It’s harmful if a controversy can threaten the release of a film at the 11th hour.
But are you sure you didn’t want to cash in on the phonetic resemblance to Harry Potter?
My film has nothing to do with wizardry or that genre either. If I wanted to cash in on Pottermania, I would not have called my film Hari Puttar: Comedy of Terrors.
There are rumours that Hari Puttar is like Home Alone…
Hari Puttar has no reference to the film that you are mentioning. My film is about two children and their power and presence of mind. We shot it completely in Yorkshire. It’s a rolling, non-stop comedy of 90 minutes duration, with four-and-a-half minutes of animation. The film has a fabulous background score and three songs by Aadesh Shrivastava. The film that you mentioned neither has songs nor animation.
Could the prejudice against your film’s title result from the West’s perception that most Hindi films are copies?
True. After this case came out, I was blasted for being a copycat. With the influx of so many channels, people around the globe can watch Hindi films and spot copies. My assumption is that since these companies hadn’t been able to do much in the past, they are taking out their wrath on my film. Hari Puttar is suffering because of what others copied in the past.
There are so many stories of the growing global popularity of Bollywood films and shows of our stars. Are non-Indians interested in Bollywood too?
I’ve lived 42 years of my life in London. I was born here and my parents have also lived here. There are three theatres around my home in London and I know for a fact that Brits don’t go to watch Hindi films there. The whole hype is only among NRIs. They are also the ones who go for the shows of Bollywood stars. Chicken tikka masala has crossed over and the Brits enjoy it too. Hindi films and shows haven’t done that yet. But yes, crossover films from India have managed to put Indian films in the limelight. I had gone for a screening of Bride and Prejudice. Forty per cent of the audience was British!
Why did you want to make a children’s film in Hindi then?
I’ve been involved in making animation stuff for children and found that there is very little matter available from India on kids. Unlike the West, where 50 or 60 per cent of the total films made each year is for kids, 10 per cent of the total films made in India in a year is for children.
What’s the reason for this disinterest?
In India, the actual starcast is much bigger than the story. People say: “Let’s go and watch a Shah Rukh Khan film”. But that doesn’t happen in the West. Since we still don’t have kiddie stars, there aren’t that many children’s films. But, all that is going to change in the next 10 years.
