I think it is fair to call the Bollywood of today a B-grade version of Hollywood. Everything in Hollywood movies is simply recycled into Bollywood movies. The once great Indian Movie Industry is suffering from a massive lack-of-originality, which is on an upward trend, with movies being nothing but cheap rip-offs of their Western counterparts. Sure, some movies are great, but the majority (I’d say about 80%) is junk.
But generally, Bollywood retains whatever self-respect it has left by releasing the copy-cat version a good amount of time after its Western-counterpart release. This time, however, it has taken take them just 2 days (read: JUST 2 DAYS) to rip-off the cover art of just-released blockbuster game Watch Dogs.
The Bollywood movie in question is the upcoming 18.11: A Code of Secrecy. Two promotional posters have been straight up ripped off from two of Watch Dogs’ cover artwork. Yes not one, but TWO bloody posters!
The first one is one of Watch Dogs’ most used and publicised artwork. The Bollywood 18.11 replica only has the design missing from Aiden Pierce’s bandana. The rest, a straight on carbon copy.
Here’s the second one, and this one’s even worse.
Everything, from Aiden Pierce’s cap to his leather trenchcoat, to the ‘down low’ look on his face, to the cell phone and pistol he’s holding, has been ripped off in the 18.11 promotional poster. Heck, they didn’t even leave the cell phone graphics from the Watch Dogs art.
To make matters worse, if you check out the official trailer of 18.11, the movie has nothing to do with hacking (a central theme in Watch Dogs, although this has been challenged) whatsoever. Nothing at all.
Watch Dogs is not the first one amongst the long list of copy-ees (and definitely not the last) Bollywood has in its arsenal. Movies such as Ek Tha Tiger’s promotional banner bears some insane amount of resemblance to Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series. South Indian (Tamil) movie Velayutham takes Assassin’s Creed as its major influence, only in its cover art though. The movie and the game are based on entirely different concepts.
Watch Dogs released on the 27th of May worldwide across the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC. Check out our exclusive Trio review of Watch Dogs.
They will never learn.