Date: November 21, 2013
From: Anubha Bang
To: Cast and Crew of 3 Idiots and Chetan Bhagat
Re: Story Credit Row

3 Idiots is the highest grossing box office hit in India’s movie history. To date, the film has collected USD 60M worldwide from theatrical ticket sales. But, 3 Idiots is better known for the story credit controversy that surrounded its release in December 2010 than the actual content of the movie. The author of the book Five Point Someone, from which the movie is allegedly adapted, has accused the makers of the film from denying him due credit. This is a classic problem in the Indian movie industry where unknown writers are pushed over by more financially secure directors and producers. However, in this unique case, the author Chetan Bhagat was a celebrity in his own right and had enough public support to take the makers of the film to task. The book had been on the bestseller lists for more than 18 months and had almost half a million readers before the movie came out. Thus, public sentiment was in the author’s favor and when the producer on one incident lost his cool and yelled at assembled journalists, the media sentiment shifted in the author’s favor too. This memo outlines the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation behind the actions of each party involved.
Self-Justification, Cheating and Abuse of Power by Makers of 3 Idiots After having legally bought the rights to adapt the novel into a movie, the producer and director of 3 Idiots assumed total ownership of the creative content. Thus, when they refused to credit the original author of the book with having any contribution in the story or the screenplay of the subsequent movie, they justified this action to themselves as a monetary right. When a customer buys a good, he or she has complete rights to use it and display their status as owners. However, in situations involving