Copy Cat movies in Malayalam

 Copy Cat movies in Malayalam

Remake rights: Is the rights to copy the story / the scenes with giving respect to the original writer / creator.
Copycat: Is the art of copying without any permission and punishable. Is very similar to stealing.


As per the movies released in last few years Hindi movies (Bollywood) tops the list in most number of Copycat Movies in addition to the remake Movies. It is said that around 40% of Movies in Bollywood are either a copycat or an inspiration from some other language Movies. (Eg: No Entry, Knock out, Thathasthu, Race, Vaqt etc). Copycat Movies are less in Tamil and
Telugu compared to Bollywood mainly because its hard to present with the culture of the states while Bollywood just imitates the Original movies without crediting the original creators (Eg: Kaante). But Remakes are high in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi compared to Malayalam Industry. I always wondered why this happening even though the Malayalam industry is in the most pathetic situation in the History of Malayalam Industry. I wondered why Malayalam have very less remakes till date right from the starting of the Film history?. and Why a lot of Malayalam movies are remaked in other languages?. I got the conclusion, may be correct or not, I feel this as a logical one.



Remaking a Malayalam Language movie in Tamil or Telugu or Hindi - The amount to be spend for getting the rights of a Malayalam movie is very less compared to getting a Hindi / Tamil / Telugu movies.
Vise versa - Less number of remakes in Malayalam is due to the high cost for getting the rights of movies from Tamil / Telugu / Hindi.
Simple, so Malayalam prefer copying the movies from other languages. I don't know much about movies prior to 1970s still I heard about few movies which are remakes of Tamil and Hindi. But post 1980s with the arrival of new age directors and actors the list of copycat movies went very high. Even many of the movies which is considered as the classics are mere a copycat of some other language movie.
I had earlier listed copycat movies in Hindi Language (I am not talking about the Official Remakes like 'Bhool Bhulaye).


Here I am collecting the list of Malayalam movies which are actually copied from another language movie with out giving any credit to the original creator. -  Stealing.

Copy-cat movies in Malayalam

1. August 1 ( Sibi Malayil and SN Swamy) - a copy of 'Day of Jackal' (English)
2. Nirnayam (Sangeeth Sivan) - a Copy of 'The Fugetive' (English)
3. Udhayananu Thram (Roshan Andrews and Sreenivasan - the post interval scenes and Characters) - a copy of ''Bowfinger' (English)
4. Manju Poloru Penkutti (Kamal) - a copy of 'Crime and Punishment in subarbia' (English)
5. Big B (Amal Neerad) - a copy of 'Four Brothers' (English)
6. Anwar (Amal Neerad) - a copy of 'Traitor' (English)
7. Malooty (Bharathan and John Poul) - a copy of 'Everybody's baby' (English)
8. Thoovalsparsham (Kamal) - a copy of 'Three men and a baby' (English)
9. Thalavattom (Priyadarshan) - a copy of 'One flew over the cockoo's nest' (English)
10. Pachakuthira (Kamal) - a copy of 'Rain Man' (English)
11. Kakkakuyil (Priyadarshan) - a copy of 'A Fish called Wanda' (English)
12. Mr. Butler (Sasi Shankar) - a copy of 'Gopala Gopala' (Tamil)
13. Simhavalan Menon (Viji Thambi) - a copy of 'Golmal' (Hindi)
14. Boing Boing (Priyadarshan) - a copy of 'Boeing Boeing' (English)
15. Hredayathil Sookshikkan - a copy of 'Meet the parents' (English)
16. Cocktail - a copy of 'Butterfly on a wheel' (English)
17. Nayattu (1980) - a copy of 'Zanjeer' (Hindi)
18. Pattabhishekam - a copy of 'Larger than life' (English)
19. Uncle Bun - a copy of 'Uncle Buck' (English)
20. Meghamalhar (Kamal) - a copy of Brief Encounter' (English).
21. Mrugaya (I V Sasi) - a copy of 'Huli Banthu Huli' (Kannada)
22. Nammal Thammil - a copy of 'Kushi' (Tamil)
23. Karumaadikuttan (Vinayan) - a copy of '16 Vayathinile' (Tamil)
24. Happy Husbands - a copy of 'Charlie Chaplin' (Tamil) [Which was copied to Hindi as 'No Entry']
25. Pathaamudhayam - a copy of 'Kaalicharan' (Hindi)
26. Mazhayethum Munpe - a copy of 'Sundharakandam' (Tamil)


In a search for Copycat in Malayalam I saw a sentence stating 'Most of the Premnazir and Jayan movies are copy of Tamil or Hindi Movies'. I am not sure about Prem Nazir movies but Jayan movies are copied (80%) from Tamil or Hindi movies. Few of the Black and White Rajini movies with a touch of negative characters can been seen in Malayalam in color with Jayan as Hero.


What I got when searched for copycats in Malayalam is something very strange and unexpected, I got few popular names such as Priyadarshan, Kamal, Dennys Joseph and Sreenivasan as the most prominent writers / directors who rips from some foreign language movies and a lot of new comers.
The above list is very small and this list contains only those are completely copied, ie the story / plot including few scenes. Movies listed here are only which I can remember now and only those I had seen.
Partially copied movies are very high in Malayalam compared to any other Industry mainly in movies released after 2004 or so. Plagiarism or Copycat can be named to those movies which have same BGM, Story, Scene and some times the whole movie itself.


1. Vinodhayathra (Sathyan Anthikadu) - few scenes are directly a xerox copy of 'My Sassy girl' (Korean)
2. Don (Shaji Khailas) - few scenes are directly ripped from 'Athadu' (Telugu)
3. Pokkiri Raja - Prithviraj portion reminds us of 'Malaikottai' (Tamil)
4. Four Friends - the main Plot is a copy of 'The bucket list' (English).


1. Mayabazar - the bgm is a direct lift from Tamil Movie 'Gilli' which had a dream run in Kerala also.


A very popular dialoge in Tamil movie 'Pokkiri' - " Nee padicha school'le headmaster'da naaanu ". Have you heard this same dialoge in any Malayalam movie? Yes, I do. In 20 Twenty.
And another popular dialoge from a Classic Tamil Movie written by Kamal Hasan and directed by Bharathan, Thevar Magan "Unakkulle Vilayadi kittirukkira singam thaan enakkulle thoongittirukku" the same dialoge is shifted to Malayalam in 'Aaram Thamburan'.
 - will be back with more list of movies.


Most of the popular Tamil Movies directed by Bhagyaraja and Visu in 1980s is been copied to Malayalam in 1990s.
Few of the Rajini Kanth's Black and White movies can be seen in Color Malayalam with Jayan as the Hero.

Copy Cat movies in Hindi, Plagiarism in Indian Movies