Well, I am not writing about any flight experiences here. This is on movies that have flown from Los Angeles to Chennai either directly or with some stop overs in Hindi or Telugu!! Some could also have flown from China, Hong Kong, France or Thailand!!
This is just an attempt to indicate to the ordinary fan like me, about who is not doing original work and still getting/taking accolades shamelessly. I hope this encourages the fans to identify and appreciate original works more.
While compiling this list, I myself have lifted content from IMDB for the plot to show the similarity with the Tamil version! While I have figured most of this out while watching them, some are collected from the web to make this list complete.
So here is the journey from Hollywood to Kodambakkam (I hate the word Kollywood!)
12B: Sliding Doors (There are two sides to every story. Helen is about to live both of them ...at the same time. Romance was never this much fun.)
AANAI: Man on Fire (A former assassin swears vengeance on those who committed an unspeakable act against the family he was hired to protect.)
AAYUDHA EZHUTHTHU: Amores perros (A horrific car accident connects three stories, each involving characters dealing with loss, regret, and life's harsh realities, all in the name of love.)
ABHIYUM NAANUM: Father of the Bride (George and Nina Banks are the parents of young soon-to-be-wed Annie. George is a nervous father unready to face the fact that his little girl is now a woman. The preparations for the extravagant wedding provide additional comic moments.)
ABOORVA SAGODARARGAL: Twins (A physically perfect, but innocent, man goes in search of his twin brother, who is a short small-time crook.)
ANBAE SIVAM: Planes, Trains & Automobiles (A man must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving, with an obnoxious slob of a shower ring salesman his only companion.)
ANDRU PEITHA MAZHAIYIL: Fatal Attraction (A married man's one night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.)
ANJALI: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (A group of Earth children help a stranded alien botanist return home.)
ARUNACHALAM: Brewster's Millions (A minor league baseball player has to waste $30m in 30 days in order to inherit $300m; however he's not allowed to tell anyone about the $300m deal.)
ASURAN: Predator (A team of commandos, on a mission in a Central American jungle, find themselves hunted by an extra-terrestrial warrior.)
AVVAI SHANMUGHI: Mrs. Doubtfire (After a bitter divorce, an actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend secret time with his children held in custody by his Ex.)
BALE PANDIYA (2010): I Hired a Contract Killer (After fifteen years' service, Henri is made redundant from his job. Shocked, he attempts suicide, but can't go through with it, so he hires a contract killer in a seedy bar to murder him at some unspecified time in the future. But almost immediately he meets and falls in love with Margaret, a flower-seller, which makes Henri realise that his life has some meaning after all. But when he goes back to the bar to cancel the contract, he finds it has been demolished - and there's no way he can get in touch with the killer.)
BOYS: Hot Bubblegum aka Shifshuf Naim (Three high school seniors preparing for final exams in the early 1960s have the normal teenage concerns about girls.)
DEIVA THIRUMAGAL: I am Sam (A mentally retarded man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter, and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family. )
DOST: Double Jeopardy (A woman framed for her husband's murder suspects he is still alive; as she has already been tried for the crime, she can't be re-prosecuted if she finds and kills him.)
ENAKKUL ORUVAN: The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (When college professor Peter Proud begins to experience flashbacks from a previous incarnation, he is mysteriously drawn to a place he has never been before but which is troublingly familiar.)
GHAJINI: Memento (A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.)
INDIRAN CHANDIRAN: Moon Over Parador (Little known actor, Jack Noah, is working on location in the dictatorship of Parador at the time the dictator dies. The dictator's right hand man, Roberto, makes Jack an offer he cannot refuse.. to play the dictator. Jack's acting skills fool the masses but not close friends and employees of the dictator.)
INDIRAVIZHA: Disclosure (A computer specialist is sued for sexual harassment by a former lover turned boss who initiated the act forcefully, which threatens both his career and his personal life.)
JAY JAY: Serendipity (A couple reunite years after the night they first met, fell in love, and separated, convinced that one day they'd end up together.)
JENMA NATCHATHIRAM: The Omen (An American ambassador learns to his horror that his son is actually the literal Antichrist.)
JULIE GANAPATHI: Misery (Novelist Paul Sheldon crashes his car on a snowy Colorado road. He is found by Annie Wilkes, the "number one fan" of Paul's heroine Misery Chastaine. Annie is also somewhat unstable, and Paul finds himself crippled, drugged and at her mercy.)
KAADHAL KOTTAI: The Shop Around the Corner (Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realizing that they're falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.)
KAADHAL KONDAEN: Fear (A 16 year old girl takes up with a charming young man who quickly shows his colors when he beats a friend simply for walking with her and then goes totally ballistic after she tries to break up with him.)
KANDUKONDAIN: Sense and Sensibility (Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. Two daughters are the titular opposites.)
NANDALALA: Kikujirô (Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro hardly seems the ideal companion for little Masao who is determined to travel long distances to see the mother he has never met. Their excursion to the cycle races is the first of a series of adventures for the unlikely pair which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and odd ball characters to meet along the way..)
NAYAGAN: God Father Part II (The early life & career of Vito Corleone in 1920's New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on his crime syndicate stretching from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to pre-Revolution 1958 Cuba.)
NAYAGAN (2008): Cellular (A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. The catch? The woman claims to have been kidnapped; and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.)
NENJIRUKKUM VARAI: John Q (A down-on-his luck father, whose insurance won't cover his son's heart transplant, takes the hospital's emergency room hostage until the doctors agree to perform the operation.)
NEW: Big (When a boy wishes to be big at a magic wish machine, he wakes up the next morning and finds himself in an adult body literally overnight.)
NINAIKKATHA NAALILAI: While You Were Sleeping (Lucy has to work on Christmas at a Chicago train station as a token collector because she has no family to go to. When she spots her dream lover, Peter, getting mugged at the station, she rescues him and brings him to a hospital, but Peter goes into a coma. Peter's family thinks that Lucy is Peter's fiancee, and welcomes her into the family. Lucy feels the family love for the first time. During the time spent with Peter's family, Lucy falls in love with Peter's brother, Jack.)
PACHAIKILI MUTHUCHARAM: Derailed (When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, the two must turn the tables on him to save their families.)
PANJA THANTHIRAM: Very Bad Things (A prostitute is killed during a bachelor party and the attendees turn on each other as the wedding approaches.)
PATTIYAL: Bangkok Dangerous (The story is of a deaf-mute hitman and his partner who are based in Bangkok. He is friends with his partner's girlfriend who is a stripper at a local club. They go about their assassination business as usual as the boss climbs the underworld ladder and forms new alliances.)
PERAANMAI: The Dawns Here Are Quiet (In a beautiful and quiet wilderness far from the front-line there is an anti-aircraft artillery point, where corporal Vaskov is stationed with a group of many young women in training. One of the women while sneaking from camp to visit her young son sees two German paratroopers. Vaskov takes five of the women to stop the two paratroopers, but finds sixteen paratroopers instead, leaving the small group of patriots to engage the enemy in an unequal fight.)
RUDHRA: Nikita (Convicted felon Nikita, instead of going to jail, is given a new identity and trained, stylishly, as a top secret spy/assassin.)
SAAVI: Dial M for Murder (An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to murder his wife. When things go wrong, he improvises a brilliant plan B.)
This is just an attempt to indicate to the ordinary fan like me, about who is not doing original work and still getting/taking accolades shamelessly. I hope this encourages the fans to identify and appreciate original works more.
While compiling this list, I myself have lifted content from IMDB for the plot to show the similarity with the Tamil version! While I have figured most of this out while watching them, some are collected from the web to make this list complete.
So here is the journey from Hollywood to Kodambakkam (I hate the word Kollywood!)
12B: Sliding Doors (There are two sides to every story. Helen is about to live both of them ...at the same time. Romance was never this much fun.)
AANAI: Man on Fire (A former assassin swears vengeance on those who committed an unspeakable act against the family he was hired to protect.)
AAYUDHA EZHUTHTHU: Amores perros (A horrific car accident connects three stories, each involving characters dealing with loss, regret, and life's harsh realities, all in the name of love.)
ABHIYUM NAANUM: Father of the Bride (George and Nina Banks are the parents of young soon-to-be-wed Annie. George is a nervous father unready to face the fact that his little girl is now a woman. The preparations for the extravagant wedding provide additional comic moments.)
ABOORVA SAGODARARGAL: Twins (A physically perfect, but innocent, man goes in search of his twin brother, who is a short small-time crook.)
ANBAE SIVAM: Planes, Trains & Automobiles (A man must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving, with an obnoxious slob of a shower ring salesman his only companion.)
ANDRU PEITHA MAZHAIYIL: Fatal Attraction (A married man's one night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.)
ANJALI: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (A group of Earth children help a stranded alien botanist return home.)
ARUNACHALAM: Brewster's Millions (A minor league baseball player has to waste $30m in 30 days in order to inherit $300m; however he's not allowed to tell anyone about the $300m deal.)
ASURAN: Predator (A team of commandos, on a mission in a Central American jungle, find themselves hunted by an extra-terrestrial warrior.)
AVVAI SHANMUGHI: Mrs. Doubtfire (After a bitter divorce, an actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend secret time with his children held in custody by his Ex.)
BALE PANDIYA (2010): I Hired a Contract Killer (After fifteen years' service, Henri is made redundant from his job. Shocked, he attempts suicide, but can't go through with it, so he hires a contract killer in a seedy bar to murder him at some unspecified time in the future. But almost immediately he meets and falls in love with Margaret, a flower-seller, which makes Henri realise that his life has some meaning after all. But when he goes back to the bar to cancel the contract, he finds it has been demolished - and there's no way he can get in touch with the killer.)
BOYS: Hot Bubblegum aka Shifshuf Naim (Three high school seniors preparing for final exams in the early 1960s have the normal teenage concerns about girls.)
DEIVA THIRUMAGAL: I am Sam (A mentally retarded man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter, and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family. )
DOST: Double Jeopardy (A woman framed for her husband's murder suspects he is still alive; as she has already been tried for the crime, she can't be re-prosecuted if she finds and kills him.)
ENAKKUL ORUVAN: The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (When college professor Peter Proud begins to experience flashbacks from a previous incarnation, he is mysteriously drawn to a place he has never been before but which is troublingly familiar.)
GHAJINI: Memento (A man, suffering from short-term memory loss, uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife.)
INDIRAN CHANDIRAN: Moon Over Parador (Little known actor, Jack Noah, is working on location in the dictatorship of Parador at the time the dictator dies. The dictator's right hand man, Roberto, makes Jack an offer he cannot refuse.. to play the dictator. Jack's acting skills fool the masses but not close friends and employees of the dictator.)
INDIRAVIZHA: Disclosure (A computer specialist is sued for sexual harassment by a former lover turned boss who initiated the act forcefully, which threatens both his career and his personal life.)
JAY JAY: Serendipity (A couple reunite years after the night they first met, fell in love, and separated, convinced that one day they'd end up together.)
JENMA NATCHATHIRAM: The Omen (An American ambassador learns to his horror that his son is actually the literal Antichrist.)
JULIE GANAPATHI: Misery (Novelist Paul Sheldon crashes his car on a snowy Colorado road. He is found by Annie Wilkes, the "number one fan" of Paul's heroine Misery Chastaine. Annie is also somewhat unstable, and Paul finds himself crippled, drugged and at her mercy.)
KAADHAL KOTTAI: The Shop Around the Corner (Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realizing that they're falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.)
KAADHAL KONDAEN: Fear (A 16 year old girl takes up with a charming young man who quickly shows his colors when he beats a friend simply for walking with her and then goes totally ballistic after she tries to break up with him.)
KANDUKONDAIN: Sense and Sensibility (Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. Two daughters are the titular opposites.)
KUZHANDAIYUM DEIVAMUM: The Parent Trap (Twins unknown to their divorced parents, meet at a summer camp. Products of single parent households, they switch places so as to meet the parent they never knew, and then contrive to reunite them.)
LAADAM: Lucky Number Slevin (A case of mistaken identity lands Slevin into the middle of a war being plotted by two of the city's most rival crime bosses.)
MAARAN: Death Sentence (When a family falls victim to a vicious attack perpetrated as a gang initiation ritual, the vengeful father, Nick Hume, vows to track down each person involved in the crime.)
MAAYAA BAZAAR: Ghost (After being killed during a botched mugging, a man's love for his partner enables him to remain on earth as a ghost.)
MAGALIR MATTUM: Nine to Five (Three female employees of a "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" find a way to turn the tables on him.)
MAGHANADHI: Hardcore (A conservative Midwest businessman ventures into the sordid underworld of pornography in California to look for his runaway teenage daughter whom is making porno films in the porno pits of Los Angeles.)
MOODUPANI: The Collector (A man kidnaps a woman and holds her hostage just for the pleasure of having her there. )
MURAN
: Strangers on a Train (Two strangers each agree to kill someone the other person wants disposed of. Guy could kill his father and he could get rid of Guy's wife Miriam.)
MY DEAR MARTHANDAN: Coming to America (An African prince goes to Queens, New York City to find a wife whom he can respect for her intelligence and will.)
NAAM IRUVAR NAMMAKU IRUVAR: Two Much (A young galarist is in love with two sisters at the same time. In order to solve the problem he decides to invent his own twin-brother.)
NAMMAVAR: The Principal (A teacher is assigned to be the principal of a violence and crime ridden high school.)
LAADAM: Lucky Number Slevin (A case of mistaken identity lands Slevin into the middle of a war being plotted by two of the city's most rival crime bosses.)
MAARAN: Death Sentence (When a family falls victim to a vicious attack perpetrated as a gang initiation ritual, the vengeful father, Nick Hume, vows to track down each person involved in the crime.)
MAAYAA BAZAAR: Ghost (After being killed during a botched mugging, a man's love for his partner enables him to remain on earth as a ghost.)
MAGALIR MATTUM: Nine to Five (Three female employees of a "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" find a way to turn the tables on him.)
MAGHANADHI: Hardcore (A conservative Midwest businessman ventures into the sordid underworld of pornography in California to look for his runaway teenage daughter whom is making porno films in the porno pits of Los Angeles.)
MOODUPANI: The Collector (A man kidnaps a woman and holds her hostage just for the pleasure of having her there. )
MURAN
: Strangers on a Train (Two strangers each agree to kill someone the other person wants disposed of. Guy could kill his father and he could get rid of Guy's wife Miriam.)MY DEAR MARTHANDAN: Coming to America (An African prince goes to Queens, New York City to find a wife whom he can respect for her intelligence and will.)
NAAM IRUVAR NAMMAKU IRUVAR: Two Much (A young galarist is in love with two sisters at the same time. In order to solve the problem he decides to invent his own twin-brother.)
NAMMAVAR: The Principal (A teacher is assigned to be the principal of a violence and crime ridden high school.)
NANDALALA: Kikujirô (Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro hardly seems the ideal companion for little Masao who is determined to travel long distances to see the mother he has never met. Their excursion to the cycle races is the first of a series of adventures for the unlikely pair which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and odd ball characters to meet along the way..)
NAYAGAN: God Father Part II (The early life & career of Vito Corleone in 1920's New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on his crime syndicate stretching from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to pre-Revolution 1958 Cuba.)
NAYAGAN (2008): Cellular (A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. The catch? The woman claims to have been kidnapped; and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.)
NENJIRUKKUM VARAI: John Q (A down-on-his luck father, whose insurance won't cover his son's heart transplant, takes the hospital's emergency room hostage until the doctors agree to perform the operation.)
NEW: Big (When a boy wishes to be big at a magic wish machine, he wakes up the next morning and finds himself in an adult body literally overnight.)
NINAIKKATHA NAALILAI: While You Were Sleeping (Lucy has to work on Christmas at a Chicago train station as a token collector because she has no family to go to. When she spots her dream lover, Peter, getting mugged at the station, she rescues him and brings him to a hospital, but Peter goes into a coma. Peter's family thinks that Lucy is Peter's fiancee, and welcomes her into the family. Lucy feels the family love for the first time. During the time spent with Peter's family, Lucy falls in love with Peter's brother, Jack.)
PACHAIKILI MUTHUCHARAM: Derailed (When two married business executives having an affair are blackmailed by a violent criminal, the two must turn the tables on him to save their families.)
PANJA THANTHIRAM: Very Bad Things (A prostitute is killed during a bachelor party and the attendees turn on each other as the wedding approaches.)
PATTIYAL: Bangkok Dangerous (The story is of a deaf-mute hitman and his partner who are based in Bangkok. He is friends with his partner's girlfriend who is a stripper at a local club. They go about their assassination business as usual as the boss climbs the underworld ladder and forms new alliances.)
PERAANMAI: The Dawns Here Are Quiet (In a beautiful and quiet wilderness far from the front-line there is an anti-aircraft artillery point, where corporal Vaskov is stationed with a group of many young women in training. One of the women while sneaking from camp to visit her young son sees two German paratroopers. Vaskov takes five of the women to stop the two paratroopers, but finds sixteen paratroopers instead, leaving the small group of patriots to engage the enemy in an unequal fight.)
RUDHRA: Nikita (Convicted felon Nikita, instead of going to jail, is given a new identity and trained, stylishly, as a top secret spy/assassin.)
SAAVI: Dial M for Murder (An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to murder his wife. When things go wrong, he improvises a brilliant plan B.)
SAROJA: Judgment Night (When they took the wrong turn, it lead them to witnessing a murder, which left them running for their lives from the perpetrators.)
SARVAM: 21 Grams (A freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother and a born-again ex-con.)
SATHI LEELAVATHI: She-Devil (An awkward and fat woman lives in the suburbs with her husband. She becomes a a monster who wants to revenge that her husband was seduced by an authoress who writes trash fiction.)
TENALI: What About Bob (A successful psychiatrist loses his mind after one of his most dependent patients, a highly manipulative obsessive-compulsive, tracks him down during his family vacation.)
THAEN MAZHAI: Bedtime Story (The story of two gigolos who vie to see which is the best at their profession.)
THEVAR MAGAN: The God Father (The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.)
THIRUDA THIRUDA: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Two Western bank/train robbers flee to Bolivia when the law gets too close.)
ULLASAM: A Bronx Tale (A father becomes worried when a local gangster befriends his son.)
VAA ARUGIL VAA: Child's Play (Young Andy Barclay gets the doll he wanted. However, he did not know it was alive!)
VAAMANAN: Enemy of the State (A lawyer becomes a target by a corrupt politician and his NSA goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a serious politically motivated crime)
VALLAVAN: Swimfan (Ben Cronin has it all: the admiration of his many friends, a terrific girlfriend, and an appointment with swim scouts from Stanford. It's not easy; Ben must train for countless hours in the pool for a critical swim meet, work at the local hospital and find quality time with his high school sweetheart, Amy. His wonderful life is disrupted by the arrival of Madison Bell. The new girl in town quickly sets her sights on the impressionable Ben. While their first few meetings are innocent enough, the seductive Madison wants more.)
VETRI VIZHA: The Bourne Identity (1988) (TV) (A man is washed ashore the beach of a small French village during a heavy storm. A retired doctor takes care of the unconscious stranger. When the mysterious man recovers, he cannot remember anything - He does not know his name, he does not know where flashback memories of violence come from, and he sure does not know why the access code of an anonymous Swiss bank account is implanted in his thigh. As he searches for his identity, things soon become dangerous. There are attempts to kill him, he is well known in first class hotels all around Europe, and, worst of all, there are strange similarities between his memories and reported actions of a high class terrorist, Carlos.)
VIYAABAARI: Multiplicity (A man who never has enough time for the things he wants to do is offered the opportunity to have himself duplicated.)
YOGI: Tsotsi (After killing a man with his gang in a robbery; hitting the gangster Boston of his gang; humiliating a crippled beggar along one night, Tsotsi hijacks a car and under the despair of a woman, he shoots her in the stomach. While driving the car, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat and the woman was a desperate mother. He brings the baby to his house in the slum and becomes attached to him. For six days, the baby changes his behavior, arousing and developing the sense of empathy and humanity in the cold blood killer.)
SARVAM: 21 Grams (A freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother and a born-again ex-con.)
SATHI LEELAVATHI: She-Devil (An awkward and fat woman lives in the suburbs with her husband. She becomes a a monster who wants to revenge that her husband was seduced by an authoress who writes trash fiction.)
TENALI: What About Bob (A successful psychiatrist loses his mind after one of his most dependent patients, a highly manipulative obsessive-compulsive, tracks him down during his family vacation.)
THAEN MAZHAI: Bedtime Story (The story of two gigolos who vie to see which is the best at their profession.)
THEVAR MAGAN: The God Father (The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.)
THIRUDA THIRUDA: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Two Western bank/train robbers flee to Bolivia when the law gets too close.)
ULLASAM: A Bronx Tale (A father becomes worried when a local gangster befriends his son.)
VAA ARUGIL VAA: Child's Play (Young Andy Barclay gets the doll he wanted. However, he did not know it was alive!)
VAAMANAN: Enemy of the State (A lawyer becomes a target by a corrupt politician and his NSA goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a serious politically motivated crime)
VALLAVAN: Swimfan (Ben Cronin has it all: the admiration of his many friends, a terrific girlfriend, and an appointment with swim scouts from Stanford. It's not easy; Ben must train for countless hours in the pool for a critical swim meet, work at the local hospital and find quality time with his high school sweetheart, Amy. His wonderful life is disrupted by the arrival of Madison Bell. The new girl in town quickly sets her sights on the impressionable Ben. While their first few meetings are innocent enough, the seductive Madison wants more.)
VETRI VIZHA: The Bourne Identity (1988) (TV) (A man is washed ashore the beach of a small French village during a heavy storm. A retired doctor takes care of the unconscious stranger. When the mysterious man recovers, he cannot remember anything - He does not know his name, he does not know where flashback memories of violence come from, and he sure does not know why the access code of an anonymous Swiss bank account is implanted in his thigh. As he searches for his identity, things soon become dangerous. There are attempts to kill him, he is well known in first class hotels all around Europe, and, worst of all, there are strange similarities between his memories and reported actions of a high class terrorist, Carlos.)
VIYAABAARI: Multiplicity (A man who never has enough time for the things he wants to do is offered the opportunity to have himself duplicated.)
YOGI: Tsotsi (After killing a man with his gang in a robbery; hitting the gangster Boston of his gang; humiliating a crippled beggar along one night, Tsotsi hijacks a car and under the despair of a woman, he shoots her in the stomach. While driving the car, Tsotsi finds that there is a baby on the back seat and the woman was a desperate mother. He brings the baby to his house in the slum and becomes attached to him. For six days, the baby changes his behavior, arousing and developing the sense of empathy and humanity in the cold blood killer.)
