Actors Akshay Kumar and Vishnu Manchu are all set for the release of their upcoming mythological film titled Kannappa. Directed by Mohan Kumar Singh, the film will follow the story of Kannappa (Manchu), who was a devout follower of Lord Shiva (Akshay Kumar). During the promotions for the film, the duo sat down for an interview where they talked about the plethora of stories available in the country and how Hollywood takes a lot of inspiration from these tales. They listed out some specific instances of when the West borrowed ideas and narratives that originated in India.
While talking to Bollywood Hungama, the duo was asked whether all the stories present in the country were getting a stage or a medium to be shared. Akshay agreed with the fact that the country and its history have an immense bank of stories to pull from, and in many cases, creators from the West have reached into that bank and taken some stories for themselves. Akshay said, “There are so many stories here, and I personally believe that Hollywood takes a lot from our stories. Their superheroes and their superpowers are all inspired by our mythology. The kind of stories we have is unbelievable, like I didn’t know the story behind Kannappa before the film.”
Manchu added to this and said, “Even Star Wars has been inspired by Mahabharat, and E.T actually came from a script written by Satyajit Ray.” Ray admitted in an interview that his original script had been making the rounds of L.A. for some time, and suddenly one day they announced E.T., which was very similar to his story.” What Manchu is presumably referring to is a script titled ‘The Alien’, which was written by Satyajit Ray. While Steven Spielberg, who directed E.T., never admitted to plagiarism, it is believed that the unproduced film was the inspiration behind one of Spielberg’s most sought-after works of cinema.
During the interview, Akshay also commented on the Hera Pheri 3 situation and stated that he was positive that the movie will get made and that he is keeping his fingers crossed.
Kannappa is being helmed by Mohan Kumar Singh, and the cast of the film includes Akshay Kumar, Vishnu Manchu, Prabhas, Mohanlal, Preity Mukhundan, Mohan Babu, and Kajal Aggarwal. It will release on June 27 and will have to compete with Brad Pitt’s F1, which will be releasing just two days prior.
