The anti-climax of Darna Mana Hai

“THIS is my story. Ramgopal Varma duplicated it,� said the anguished voice of King Kriss, a producer-director based in Bangalore. The movie in question: Darna Mana Hai, being heralded as a unique film with a strange concept — six individual stories with one common climax.
Cut to the conference room in The Times of India office. King Kriss is upset about his original story idea being pinched.With a curly mane that can give any Afro a run for his hairdo, and meticulously applied long red tika on his forehead, he gave us a plastic folder containing printed sheets of his original story idea. It had the title The Crossover by King Kriss Copyright 2002 by King Kriss printed boldly on it.
“Darna Mana Hai is my story. It has three stories with one climax, whereas Ramu’s has six stories with one climax. Only three people had conceived this idea before, Alfred Hitchcock, Gubbi Veeranna and myself.� Apparently, King Kriss, in a drunken stupor “blurted out the story idea� to his friends on New Year’s Day 2002.
“Between January-February 2003, I submitted my idea to numerous production companies in India and Dubai. Amongst them Idream Productions, Kaleidoscope showed a keen interest in it. Initially, even Aamir Khan evinced an interest in the script. Later he became evasive,� said King Kriss albeit accusingly.
We gently pointed out that the trailer of Darna Mana Hai is already being aired on television. Is it possible for Ramgopal Varma to have stolen the idea, made a film and even a trailer within two months? Sounded farfetched.
“But I haven’t seen any trailer. Which channel is it being aired on?� he asked. We answered. Could it be a case of sheer coincidence that two people thought of an idea, (which, by the way, is not an original one) at the same time? Kriss was not convinced.
Did he speak to Ramgopal Varma? “I tried, but his secretary dismissed our claims, saying ‘So what if it is your idea?’.� This was getting further complicated.
Kriss left the office determined to speak to Ramu before sunset. Later in the evening, King Kriss called and was singing a different tune. “I checked,� he drawled.
“It seems Ramu’s movie was more than complete by January 2003. So there was no way he could have pinched my idea. But what a bad coincidence, especially now when I am planning to tie up with Warner Bros regarding this idea,� his voice trailed.
Well, what can we say, other than, it was just another day in a newspaper office where we meet all kinds of people.