Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law Volume 23 Issue 3 Article 2 2021 Adapting Indian Copyright: Bollywood, Indian Cultural Adaptation, and the Path to Economic Development Michael P. Goodyear Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Michael P. Goodyear, Adapting Indian Copyright: Bollywood, Indian Cultural Adaptation, and the Path to Economic Development, 23 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law 517 (2021) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/vol23/iss3/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Adapting Indian Copyright: Bollywood, Indian Cultural Adaptation, and the Path to Economic Development Michael P. Goodyear* ABSTRACT Bollywood and the Indian film industry have enjoyed enormous success, being among the largest movie producers in the world. Yet, despite the bright image of Indian cinema producing over a thousand movies a year and selling billions of tickets, the industry has faced controversy over the practice of copying expression, sometimes practically scene for scene, from US and other international films and adapting them into a version that reflects Indian social and cinematic customs and mores (“Indian cultural adaptation”). A long-standing practice, Indian cultural adaptation in Bollywood has only attracted the attention of Hollywood studios in the past twenty years, but under international, US, and Indian copyright law, the legality of the practice remains in an unsettled gray area.