© Kamla-Raj 2014 Anthropologist, 18(1): 211-216 (2014) Copyright Violations, ‘Inspirations’ and Adaptation in Indian Films: A Case for Cinema as Visual Anthropology? Apurva Bakshi 1 and Ravi Kiran 2 School of Behavioral Sciences and Business Studies, Thapar University, Patiala 147004, Punjab, India Telephone: 1 <91-175-2393135, 91-9888-211-770>, 2 <91-175-2393133> E-mail: 1 <abakshi@thapar.edu>, 2 <rkiran@thapar.edu> KEYWORDS Films. Visual Studies. Intellectual Property Rights. Anthropological Information in Films ABSTRACT The field of visual anthropology encompasses relationships between anthropology and visual media, but its applications have been primarily limited to studying the visual manifestations and pictorial aspects of culture as well as cultural behaviour of humans, and to the study of ethnographic film. Copyright violations and ‘inspirations’ refer to the unauthorized remakes and copies of western films that abound in the Indian film landscape. The objective of this paper is to analyse the anthropological issues in the making of cross-cultural adaptations and remakes, both authorized and unauthorized, in the Indian film industry. It does so by analyzing the anthropological information inherent in, cross-cultural adaptations, and in various violating and inspired versions of foreign films being made in India. By doing so, it seeks to establish a stronger conceptual association between cinema and visual anthropology, thereby presenting a case for cinema as visual anthropology. Address for correspondence: Apurva Bakshi Assistant Professor School of Behavioral Sciences and Business Studies Thapar University Patiala 147004 (Punjab) India Telephone: 91-175-2393135, 91-9888-211-770 E-mail: abakshi@thapar.edu INTRODUCTION “When the image moves it qualifies the char- acter of human behaviour. Refinements of inter- personal behaviour are suggested in still photo- graphs, but conclusions must still rest on often projective impressions that “fill in” what the photograph does not contain. With moving records, however, the nature and significance of social behaviour becomes easier to define with responsible detail, for it is the language of mo- tion that defines love and hate, anger and de- light, and other qualities of behaviour. For this reason visual studies of behaviour and commu- nication tend to use film and video rather than the still camera.” (Collier 1986) This observation by John Collier in his seminal book, “Visual An- thropology: Photography as a Research Meth- od”, serves as an important standpoint from which the current research can be viewed. Marion and Crowder (2013) present a con- cise overview of the significant ethical, theoret- ical, and practical considerations for conduct- ing visual research, and highlight the importance of thinking visually before engaging in visual research. Objectives The researchers are trying to look at the phe- nomena of cross-cultural copyright violations and ‘inspirations’, and adaptation across sub- ject-matters of copyright, in terms of an anthro- pological perspective. The basic argument that this research endeavours to present is that the moving image of film contains valuable anthro- pological information and is an effective and ef- ficient medium for such a function, establishing a case for cinema as visual anthropology. The objective of this paper is to analyse the anthro- pological issues in the making of cross-cultural adaptations and remakes, both authorized and unauthorized, in the Indian film industry. It does so by analyzing the anthropological information inherent in cross-cultural adaptations, and in various violating and inspired versions of for- eign films being made in India. CINEMA AND ANTHROPOLOGY “Cinema and anthropology have a parallel history and development. They came from the same nineteenth-century Euro-American intel- lectual and cultural foundations. The cinema has four conceptual origins: (1) it is a device to tell stories (that is, a narrative function), as seen in