SA judge's story inspires film

2004-11-12 09:14

Mumbai - A rape claim scandal which shook this year's World Social Forum meeting and Hollywood movie Disclosure have inspired a steamy formula for a potential Bollywood blockbuster opening on Friday.

Aitraaz (Objection), starring action-star Akshay Kumar, former Miss World Priyanka Chopra and popular actor Kareena Kapoor, tackles the issue of a man wrongly accused of rape.

"We were inspired by the case of the South African judge who was accused of rape during the World Social Forum meeting in January," said Abbas Burmawala, who directed the movie with brother Mustan.

"We thought the fact that even consensual sex can later be called rape and that women can now take advantage of the law for their own benefit would make for a great film."

High-profile South African judge Siraj Desai was accused of rape by 26-year-old Aids worker Salome Isaacs, a member of the South African delegation at the 2004 World Social Forum held in Mumbai in January.

Issacs had accused Desai of raping her in his five-star hotel room but later withdrew the complaint, after which Desai was released from a Mumbai prison.

'A lot of thrills'

The rape charge stole headlines from the Forum, making front-page news in South Africa and India.

Aitraaz tells the story of a high-powered executive played by Kumar who is sexually harassed by his boss's wife, and later accused of raping her.

While the central story of Aitraaz seems to have been inspired by Desai's rape case, the characters of the film strongly resemble those in Hollywood's Disclosure, starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore.

In Aitraaz, Kumar's role is largely based on Douglas's character, while Chopra enacts Moore's power-hungry role.

In Disclosure, Moore, the former girlfriend of Douglas, comes back into his life as his boss and harasses him sexually.

"Yes, the characters are similar to those in Disclosure, but the film is typically Abbas-Mustan in style," Kapoor said.

"It is very slick with a lot of thrills. Not only is it entertaining, the film also contains an important social message."

Kapoor plays the role of Kumar's wife in the film and defends her husband in the court when he is accused of rape by Chopra.

Bollywood has often been accused of lifting characters and even entire plots from Hollywood films, but Subhash Ghai, producer of Aitraaz, doesn't see it as plagiarism.

"All plots are based on something or the other," Ghai said.

"At the end of the day, there are only a few central plots which all films are based on. You just shuffle things around to make it seem fresh and new."

- AFP