BIT, Noida

Review the Essentials of a Valid Contract from the contract between Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Chetan Bhagat in the context of Five Point Someone and 3 Idiots.
Project Assignment by Arun Trikha

Arun Trikha, MBA PT 4706/10 1/1/2013

Table of Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

About Chetan Bhagat About the movie 3 Idiots The Agreement The Controversy Sequence of Events Similar Events References

About Chetan Bhagat

Chetan Bhagat is an Indian author who has written Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT , One Night @ the Call Center, The Three Mistakes of My Life and 2 States - The Story Of My Marriage. He has also written the script of Hello, the Hindi movie based on One Night @ the Call Center. Chetan Bhagat was born in New Delhi. He attended Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi. He studied Mechanical Engineering at IIT Delhi and studied at IIM Ahmedabad. He worked as an Investment Banker with Deutsche bank for eleven years in Hong Kong and moved to Mumbai with his wife Anusha in 2008. Later he gave up his job to devote his entire time to his writings. He is married to Anusha, who was his classmate in IIM. His writing style is simple with linear narratives and vivid story telling. His books have been best-sellers inspite of getting poor reviews and being widely criticized. He is a columnist with Dainik Bhaskar & The Times Of India, and writes on political issues. He is an NRI and a citizen of Singapore. Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT was his first book. It's a story of three IIT Delhi students- Hari, Ryan and Alok who come from three different backgrounds. The book is about their years in IIT Delhi and how they cope with the pressures of studies, family and relationships. Despite poor critical response, it was greeted with popularity, and brought Bhagat a large fan following. It was adapted into a play by the theatre group "Madras Players". This book was adapted into a movie, called 3 Idiots, though Chetan Bhagat has stated that he was not involved in the scriptwriting in any way. Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, and starring Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, and Boman Irani in pivotal roles, it was released on December 25, 2009.

About 3 Idiots
Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi), and Rancchoddas "Rancho" Shyamaldas Chanchad (Aamir Khan) are three engineering students who share a room in a hostel at the fictional Imperial College of Engineering, one of the best colleges in India. While Farhan and Raju are mediocre students from modest backgrounds who want to lift their families out of poverty, Rancho is a wealthy genius who studies for the sheer joy of it. However, Rancho's passion for knowledge and machine-building rather than exam rankings, conforming to the system and social climbing, incurs the wrath of Professor Viru Sahastrabudhhe (Virus) (Boman Irani). Rancho irritates his lecturers by giving creative and unorthodox answers, and confronts Virus after fellow student Joy Lobo hangs himself in his dormitory room. Joy had requested an extension on his major project on compassionate groundshis father had suffered a strokebut Virus refused, saying that he himself was completely unmoved by his own son's accidental death after being hit by a train. The professor then proceeded to phone Lobo's ill father and inform him that his son will not be graduating. Rancho denounces the rat-run, dog-eat-dog, mindless rote learning mentality of the institution, blaming it for Lobo's death, after which ViruS hauls his rebellious student and forces him to lecture the other students. Rancho then embarrasses the staff and students by asking them questions about non-existent concepts (Farhanitrate and Prerajulization), prompting them to feverishly search through textbooks trying to find a definition. Threatened by Rancho's talent and free spirit, ViruS labels him an "idiot" and attempts on a number of occasions to destroy his friendship with Farhan and Raju, warning them and their parents to steer clear of Rancho. In contrast, ViruS model student is Chatur Ramalingam or "Silencer", (Omi Vaidya) who sees a high rank at the prestigious college as his ticket to higher social status, corporate

power, and therefore wealth. Chatur conforms to the expectations of the system, and works by mindless rote learning, and unethical means of destroying his competition, such as trying to distract his classmates by feeding them pornography magazines. Rancho humiliates Chatur, who is awarded the honour of making a speech at an award ceremony, by inserting obscenities into the text, which has been written by the librarian. Chatur mindlessly memorises the speech, without noticing that anything is amiss, directing frequent vulgar language at ViruS and the federal education minister, much to their horror, and to the students' uproarious laughter. Meanwhile, Rancho also falls in love with Virus's medical student daughter Pia (Kareena Kapoor) when he, Raju and Farhan crash her sister's wedding banquet in order to get a free meal. This incident provokes further run-ins with Virus, but Rancho wins over Pia after first insulting her fiancee Suhas and then demonstrating that Suhas only sees Pia's hand in marriage as a means of furthering his career by marrying into an influential family. Rancho does this by damaging Suhas's expensive material goods, and then confiscating Suhas's gifts to Pia. The latter incident provokes an angry tirade from Suhas towards Pia about how much money she has lost himhe thinks that she was absent-minded and lost the present. After this, the pair fall in love and Pia saves Raju's ill father by administering emergency treatment after he collapses. Meanwhile, the three students continue to anger Virus, although Rancho continues to come first in every exam, while Chatur is always second, and Farhan and Raju are inevitably in the last two positions. The tensions come to a head when the three friends, who are already drunk, break into Virus's house at night to see Pia, and then urinate on a door inside the compound before running away when Virus senses intruders. The next day, Virus tells Raju that he is being expelled. This devastates Raju, who is afraid that his ill father will die of the shock of his only son being cast aside and being unable to support the family and earn a dowry for his unmarried sister. Virus sees an opportunity to break Raju's friendship with Rancho by offering to expel the latter instead. Unable to choose between betraying his friend or letting down his family, Raju jumps out of the

window and lands on a courtyard, but after extensive care from Pia and his roommates, awakes from a coma. The experience has changed Farhan and Raju, and they adopt Rancho's outlook. Farhan decides to pursue his love of photography, while Raju is unexpectedly given an interview for a corporate job. He attends in plaster and a wheelchair and gives a series of non-conformal and frank answers. After turning Raju down, the stunned recruitment personnel change their mind and tell Raju to name whatever salary he wants. However, Virus is unsympathetic and vows to make the final exam as hard as possible so that Raju is unable to graduate. Pia hears him and angrily confronts him, and when Virus gives the same ruthless reply he gives to his students, she denounces him in the same way that Rancho did over the suicide of Lobo. Pia reveals that Viruss son and her brother was not killed in an accident but committed suicide in front of a train and left a letter because Virus had forced him to pursue a career in engineering over his love for literature; Virus always mentioned that he unsympathetically failed his son on the ICE entrance exams over and over to every new intake of ICE students. After this, Pia walks out on the family home, and takes Virus's spare keys with her. She tells Rancho of the exam, and he and Farhan break into Virus's office and steals the exam and give it to Raju, who with his new-found attitude, is unconcerned with the prospect of failing, and refuses to cheat and throws the paper away. However, Virus catches the trio and expels them on the spot. However, they earn a reprieve when Viruss pregnant elder daughter goes into labour at the same time. A heavy storm cuts all power and traffic, and Pia is still in self-imposed exile, so she tells Rancho to deliver the baby in the college common room with the help of a webcam, after Rancho restores power using car batteries and a power inverter that Rancho had dreamed up and Virus had mocked. Rancho then delivers the baby with the help of a cobbled-together Vacuum extractor. After the baby is apparently stillborn, Rancho resuscitates it. Virus reconciles with Rancho and his friends and allows them to take their final exams and they graduate. Rancho comes first and is awarded Virus's pen, which the professor had been keeping for decades before finding a brilliant enough student to gift it to.

Their story is framed as a flashback from the present day; ten years after Chatur vowed revenge on Rancho for embarrassing him at the speech night and promised to become more successful than Rancho a decade later. Having lost contact with Rancho, who disappeared during the graduation party and went into seclusion, Raju and Farhan begin a journey to find him. They are joined by Chatur, now a wealthy and successful businessman, who joins them, brazenly confident that he has surpassed Rancho. Chatur is also looking to seal a deal with a famous scientist and prospective business associate named Phunsukh Wangdu. Chatur sees Wangdu, who has hundreds of patents, as his ticket to further social climbing. When they find Rancho's house, they walk into his father's funeral, and find a completely different Rancho. After accusing the new man of stealing their friend's identity and profiting from his intellect, the host pulls a gun on them, but Farhan and Raju turn the tables by seizing the father's ashes and threatening to flush them down the toilet. The householder capitulates and says that their friend was a destitute servant boy who loved learning, while he, the real Rancho, was a lazy wealthy child who disliked study, so the family agreed to let the servant boy study in Rancho's place instead of labouring. In return, the real Rancho would pocket the qualifications and the benefits thereof, while the impersonator would sever all contact with the world and start a new life. The real Rancho reveals that his impersonator is now a schoolteacher in Ladakh. Raju and Farhan then find Pia, and take her from her wedding day to Suhas by performing the same tricks with his material possessions, and having Raju turn up to the ceremony disguised as the groom and eloping with Pia in front of the guests. When they arrive in Ladakh, they see a group of enthusiastic ethnic Tibetan children who are motivated by love of knowledge. Pia and the fake Rancho rekindle their love, while Chatur mocks and abuses the schoolteacher before walking away. When his friends ask what his real name is, he reveals that it Phunsukh Wangdu and phones Chatur, who has turned his back, to turn around and meet his prospective business partner. Chatur is horrified and falls to his knees, trying to flatter Phunsukh Wangdu.1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Idiots

The Controversy
The author Chetan Bhagat claims that the attribution (or rather the lack of it) to his book in the movie has been rather "unfair". Having seen the movie ("3 Idiots") and the book ("5 Point Someone"), I'm quite sympathetic to Chetan's claims that he's been "unfairly" treated. And I also think he may have an arguable case under Indian copyright law, since his book input has not been adequately "attributed", but rather reduced to a paltry amount of 3-5%. Bhagat writes in his blog: "Pre-release, the makers made press statements like the movie is only very loosely, 2%-5% inspired by the book. After release, those who have read the book and seen the movie (and frankly, I think those are the only people who have the right to comment) find the film to be an adaptation of Five Point Someone. The setting, characters, plotline, dramatic twists and turns, one-liners, theme, message almost all aspects that make up the story are from FPS. Yes, there are some changes, any adaptation requires that but it is no way an original story. Examining the Key Facts/Issues

Some specific facts and the various issues (both legal and moral) that they give rise to: 1. Bhagat entered into a contract with the production house (Vinod Chopra Films Pvt Ltd), under which he assigned all rights in any audio visual format of the book 2 or its adaptation to the production house.

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2. As consideration, Bhagat was to be paid a certain sum of money (totaling about Rs 11 lakhs or so). The facts appear to indicate that he was paid this sum in full and Bhagat does not contest this in his blog post either. So this is not really about 3 the money. 3. Bhagat was also promised credit in the film. This is mentioned below and is also clearly stated in Clause 4 of the contract. "It shall be obligatory on the part of the Producer to accord credit to the author in the rolling credits of any audio-visual moving image software (of any format or form in any media or medium) produced by the Producer in terms of the exercise and execution of the Rights granted as under: Based Five By Chetan Bhagat on Point The Novel Someone

Although, as contractually promised, the credits right at the end of the film do mention the fact that the movie is based on the book by Bhagat, it crams up the attribution (Based on The Novel Five Point Someone By Chetan Bhagat) in one line, whereas the contract stretches out the entire attribution to 3 lines. Bhagat could therefore argue that even contractually, the form of placement was not complied with. This is buttressed by the fact that the credit at the end of the movie was so fleeting that even his mother missed it. Contrast this with the fact that the script writer, Abhijit Joshi was credited right at the start of the movie.

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Of course, one might argue that Bhagat ought to have bargained for better placement of his "credit" in the movie; rather than as a mere rolling credit.
4

Moral

Rights

and

Lack

of

Attribution

4. Bhagat claims that in the pre-release publicity and even post the movie, the makers of the movie made statements to the effect that the movie was not really based on the book and that it was "original". Most damagingly perhaps, the makers claim that the movie was only based on the book to a paltry extent of 35% . If what Bhagat states is true, then he has a decent case against the makers of the movie on grounds of moral rights. Section 57 of the Indian copyright act vests every author with the right to insist that their works be attributed to them. And this right exists independent of the "economic" right to exploit the work. In essence, the section states that "..independently of the author's copyright and even after the assignment either wholly or partially of the said copyright, the author of a work shall have the right to claim the authorship of the work ... " In other words, even if the economic rights are assigned away (and in this case, Bhagat assigned away his rights to any movie based on the book), the moral rights continue to vest in the author. The question now is: is it true that Bhagat's book only contributed 3-5% to the movie. Or was the movie based substantially on the book? The copying has been rather significant. And not a mere 3-5%! Therefore, the end product (movie script) could be rightfully said to be a product of joint authorship,
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involving

Chetan

Bhagat,

Abhijit

and

Rajkumar

Hirani.

Let's examine the movie and book in closer detail.

A Factual Comparison
SIMILARITIES i) The setting for the story is a premier engineering college in New Delhi. While in the book, it is the world renowned Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), in the movie, it is titled the "Imperial College of Engineering". ii) The story revolves around 3 friends who make it to the Imperial College of engineering and their various trials and tribulations, starting with their initiation ceremony (referred to as "ragging" in India) by their seniors. iii) The smartest of the lot is an "out of the box" non conformist thinker, who goes by the name of "Rancho" (played by the legendary Aamir Khan, a leading Bollywood star). Illustratively, he refuses to go by the bookish definition of "machine" and defines it loosely as anything that makes life easier for humans. iv) The second of the three musketeers (Raju) is really poor and his parents have just about scraped together all their earnings to put him through engineering school. His father is paralyzed and requires hospital attention. He is therefore under tremendous pressure to score well in college, find a good job, and earn enough to get his sister married off etc. v) The third friend is a very talented photographer (Farhan) but is in the
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wrong place (engineering college). I don't recollect finding any references to this photography talent of Farhan in the book. vi) In both the book and the movie, Farhan is the narrator of the story. vii) On one particular occasion, the three musketeers go up to the terrace of their college (near a water tank) to elevate their spirits and end up thoroughly inebriated. viii) The entire educational set up is geared towards rewarding students who learn by rote i.e those that do not question their professors or teaching methodologies, but blindly spew out class notes for their exams, something that most Indian institutions encourage even today. Rancho strikes a different chord and in the process incurs the wrath of the institutional powers that be. I personally felt that the movie highlights this aspect with greater impact than does the book. ix) The head of the institution, whose rather long name is shortened to 'Virus" deals mercilessly with what he perceives to be student infractions or weaknesses. His Hitler like attitude in foisting his rather conservative and austere value system on his children and students leads to his son committing suicide. x) During the course of their studies, Raju cracks under pressure and tries to commit suicide. xi) Rancho and friends steal the exam question paper from the Directors' room and face the prospect of rustication. Luckily, they come away unscathed, since it turns out that Rancho got the keys from Virus' daughter, with whom he shares a romantic relationship.

DIFFERENCES

i) While the book appears to center around Farhan (the 5 pointer, a reference to his rather average grades), the movie focuses more on the unconventional Rancho. Having said this, the book does glorify Rancho's maverick nature and one could say that he is made out to be a hero of sorts. ii) While the film has Rancho romancing the Director's daughter (Piya), the book has Farhan doing so. iii) The film portrays Rancho as generous boy who loves learning for the sake of learning and enters engineering college only to acquire a degree and hand it over (fraudulently) to the son of his dad's boss. The book avoids this fraudulent act. iv) The film shows Rancho turning out to become a world famous inventor at the end of the movie, with over 400 patents to his name. However, he is more of an informal innovator, and some of the inventions depicted in his remote and rather picturesque Ladakh open air lab were borrowed from NIF innovators. The book does not contain this inspiring ending. v) The movie also ends with Pia finding Rancho in his innovation friendly Shangrila and slapping him for deserting her. The book misses out on this 7 resounding ending.
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vi) One of the funniest moments in the movie is a speech read out by Chatur Ramalingam, the polar opposite of Rancho, in that he is the typical conformist who cosies up to his professors and crams too hard. Rancho switches the speech and has Chatur spouting out nasty adjectives for the 8 Director in his Hindi speech (a langauge he is not familiar with since he is born to expat parents). I can't remember any references to such a speech in the book. vii) Chatur vows to avenge his humiliation and wagers that in 10 years, he would have become highly succesful, while Rancho would be rotting in hell. The movie begins with Chatur returning from the US (where he leads a successful career, with beautiful apartment, voluptuous wife and Lambhorgini) and attempting to locate Rancho and his friends to demonstrate that he has indeed won the wager. He manages to locate the friends and get them to the college terrace, but Rancho is nowhere in sight. In fact, even Rancho's closest friends have lost touch with him after college as he gave them the slip. The hunt begins and Rancho is found...not rotting away but flourishing in the beautiful Ladakh as a world class inventor, with whom Chatur's US company wishes to collaborate. The book does not contain any of these Bollywoody references. viii) And lastly, though perhaps insignificantly, the names of all the characters in the book have been changed in the movie.

It is highly misleading and downright dishonest to claim that only 3-5% of the movie was taken, if at all it is possible to precisely quantify such factors. The net implication is that the rest of the movie script really originated from other authors, a proposition rather difficult to digest. To me, it appears that a significant portion of the book's storyline, most of its characters and sub plots, including
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some dialogues were all reproduced in the movie. The fact that some new scenes and sub plots were added afresh to the movie does not detract from the fact that significant portions of the book were copied onto the movie in the first place. Therefore, the claim that the book only contributed 3-5% of the movie is blatantly false. On the contrary, Chetan could claim that the script borrows significant amounts of copyrightable elements from his book and he is therefore legitimately entitled to be treated as a joint author of this script. Consequently, the lack of appropriate attribution in favour of Chetan amounts to a violation of his rights to authorship guaranteed by section 57 of the Indian copyright act. Even otherwise, by crediting the movie to the book as per clause 4 outlined above (albeit a fleeting credit right at the end of the movie that one was likely to miss), couldn't one argue that the movie makers impliedly accepted that a significant portion of the movie was based on the book? Else, why would they need to credit at all? Though technically, one might argue that the contract demanded it, irrespective of whether or not significant book portions were taken.9

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