Aamir Khan’s Sitaare Zameen Par 'frame by frame copy' of Hollywood film that copied Spanish film? Internet is confused

Internet has discovered Aamir Khan's new film Sitaare Zameen Par is very similar to Woody Harrelson's Champions, itself a remake of Spanish film Campeones.

Sitaare Zameen Par's trailer was released on Tuesday evening. The heartwarming trailer won many fans over with its simple and honest depiction of intellectual disabilities, as well as Aamir Khan's portrayal of a disgruntled and unlikable coach. However, hours after the trailer was launched, many noted uncanny similarities in some of the scenes with the Hollywood film, Champions. If that was not enough, others pointed out that Champions was itself a 'copy' of the Spanish film Campeones or that Aamir likely bought the rights to it, leaving the internet quite confused.

Woody Harrelson in Champions, Aamir Khan in Sitaare Zameen Par, and Javier Gutiérrez in Campeones.

Is Sitaare Zameen Par a copy of Champions?

Sitaare Zameen Par follows the coach of a professional basketball team (Aamir), who is fired after attacking his senior, and then arrested for drunk driving. The court sentences him to community service, under which he has to train a team of intellectually disabled persons. Champions, the 2023 Hollywood film starring Woody Harrelson, had the same plot. But more amazingly, the internet noted that many of the scenes in Sitaare Zameen Par were an exact replica of scenes from Champions.

Sharing a comparison of scenes from the two films on Instagram, one user wrote, "Cut Copy Paste". A comment on the same post read, "What is Bollywood? An industry where originality is on vacation, A remix factory where they take a Hollywood or tollywood script, add 6 unnecessary songs, and call it a cinematic universe." Many others pointed out that several scenes were too similar to ones from Champions. "Copying frame by frame! That requires some real talent," quipped one Instagram user.

What is Campeones then?

Some defended Aamir Khan and film by claiming that Sitaare Zameen Par is an official adaptation of Campeones, the 2018 Spanish film that Champions was a remake of as well. "For those who don't understand how things work: Aamir Khan Productions did acquire the official Hindi remake rights to the 2018 Spanish film Campeones (released in English as Champions) in order to produce the upcoming film Sitaare Zameen Par," wrote one. HT has reached out to Aamir Khan Productions for clarity on the matter, but has not received a response yet.

Campeones stars Javier Gutiérrez and, like the other two, follows the same story of an angry basketball coach training a team of intellectually disabled people and helping them qualify for the Special Olympics. All three films have almost the exact same courtroom scenes, exchanges between the coach and the players, and even specific sequences like the coach accidentally hitting a player with a ball, and being humbled by a female player in the team.

About Sitaare Zameen Par

Sitaare Zameen Par, directed by RS Prasanna, is the spiritual sequel to the 2007 hit film Taare Zameen Par. Produced by Aamir Khan Productions, the film introduces 10 debut actors: Aroush Datta, Gopi Krishna Varma, Samvit Desai, Vedant Sharma, Ayush Bhansali, Ashish Pendse, Rishi Shahani, Rishabh Jain, Naman Mishra, and Simran Mangeshkar. The screenplay for the film is penned by Divy Nidhi Sharma. The film stars Aamir as a basketball coach training a team of 'intellectually disabled' people. The film also stars Genelia D'Souza. It is slated to be released on 20 June.