Big B's Cheeni Kum similar to Nishabd ?

The storyline of the two films-an older man falling in love with a younger girl-is quite similar, says Vajir Singh.

It’s happened with two other films before this – Toofan and Jaadugar, both with Amitabh Bachchan, both released one after the other. Both failed to bring in audiences. The reason: since Bachchan played a magician in both, audiences felt the two films resembled each other too closely.

History is apparently repeating itself, again with Amitabh Bachchan. Two of his films, Nishabd and Cheeni Kum are both said to be based on the same theme: an older man falling in love with a much younger girl/woman.

HT Image

Nishabd is scheduled to release this Friday but it’ll be a while before Cheeni Kum hits the screens. A source says Cheeni Kum’s director, Balkrishnan, was shocked when he saw parts of Nishabd a couple of days ago.

“Cheeni Kum is being edited by Chandan Arora, who is Ram Gopal Varma’s protége. Arora apparently helped Balkrishnan see the film.” Balkrishnan, however, denies the rumour and says, “The two movies are complete opposites of each other. There’s no similarity.”

Asked if he had seen Nishabd, he says, “I’ve not seen the whole film, only parts of it. I assure you it is completely different from my film.” Reminded that both movies share the same premise he replies, “My film is a classic love story and there is no term called ‘elderly’ in it. I agree there is a big age difference between my two protagonists, Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu, but that’s it.”

Balkrishan also insists Nishabd’s release will not hurt the prospects of his debut film. “My film is complete but we don’t want to release it during the Cricket World Cup. It will release on May 18,” he says.

On a parting note Balkrishan says, “Apart from being a love story, Cheeni Kum is a comedy and Nishabd is not.”