Saptarshi Nag
Just imagine a movie produced by the Columbia Pictures, starring the great Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers. And who is behind the camera directing the film on a story written by himself? None other than the maestro Satyajit Ray. Yes, it was about to happen in the 1960s. ‘The Alien’ based on Ray’s own short story ‘Bankubabur Bandhu’ was very much in the pipeline to be made into a Hollywood film when Ray discovered that his own script written for the film in 1967 had already been copyrighted by one Michael Wilson, Ray’s own representative in Hollywood. The script was copyrighted as Wilson as the co-writer whereas he had nothing to do with it and it was solely written by Ray. When the disputes started, Brando walked out of the film. Columbia Pictures tried to convince James Coburn, the famous action hero to star in the film. Disillusioned, Ray came back to India.
The original story revolves around a friendly alien, a slightly dim-witted village boy who becomes the alien’s friend, a greedy Calcutta businessman, a local journalist and an American scientist. It was written for ‘Sandesh’ magazine in 1962. Arthur C Clarke, Satyajit’s friend and the legendary science fiction writer himself was impressed reading the story and he persuaded Ray to try his luck in Hollywood. Only after this, Ray had an initial deal with the Columbia Pictures through Miachael Wilson, a small-time producer. It is to be noted that Wilson was recommended by Clarke only.
While the talks of ‘The Alien’ were going on, Steven Spielberg, the world-famous director was only 21. He made his debut as a filmmaker in 1969. But it was in 1977 he made his first commercially successful movie ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. And those who were aware of the pictorial script of ‘The Alien’ were taken aback by the striking similarities between Ray’s imagination and the execution of Spielberg. However, as there was no direct connection between the plots, the controversy went unnoticed.
In 1982 Spielberg made his biggest blockbuster ‘ET- The Extra Terrestrial’ about the companionship of a group of kids with a friendly alien. This time Arther C Clarke watched the film and noticed striking similarities with Ray’s ‘The Alien’. He immediately informed Ray about this. But no legal action was initiated by Ray as advised by Clarke. Clark later confronted Spielberg and accused him of plagiarism to which the renowned filmmaker scoffed.
Satyajit revealed that making ‘Close Encounters’ or ‘ET’ would not have been possible for Spielberg without the support of his own script and Spielberg must have had access to his script from mimeographed copies of the same which were made available by the notorious Wilson at hefty prices. Satyajit never indulged further dream of pursuing his career in Hollywood. Later on, many alien movies throughout the world had their roots in Ray’s immortal story.
When the US Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences awarded him the prestigious Oscar for a “lifetime achievement” in films, the story came to a full circle. He was in the same league where the greats including Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Sir Charles Chaplin and Akira Kurosawa belonged. Spielberg went to acknowledge Ray’s influence on his overall filmmaking but he never publicly accepted the charges of plagiarism in ‘ET’ or’ The Close Encounter’.
From Jagadish Chandra Bose to Satyajit Ray, the great Bengalis often deceived by the foreigners will be remembered forever for not how they reacted to being deprived of their due credits by the international societies but how they went on with their works, their creations, their gifts to the mankind, making them immortals in their respective fields. Today’s parents reading this piece must visit the bookstore and buy some of Satyajit’s books for their kids, as we all come out from Ray’s Alien, not ‘Gogol’s Overcoat’.
