Paresh Rawal on Bollywood’s past remakes says, Hum toh chori ka maal hi uthaate the

In the 1980s and 90s, Bollywood often remade or took inspiration from Hollywood and Korean films, creating similar movies in Hindi. Over time, fans noticed many Bollywood films resembling foreign ones.
Recently, Paresh Rawal acknowledged this trend. He revealed that producers faced huge losses after American studios set up offices in India.
In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, “I have even experienced it first hand. If you go to a director and say that you want to make a film, they would hand you an old cassette with dust on it. They would just say, ‘Yeh dekh le, fir baad mai isme ek aur mix karenge (watch this film, we will later add another film to this).'”
“It was actually a good thing that their offices came here and our stories got out, otherwise hum toh chori ka maal hi uthaate the (we would steal earlier). We were just good thieves… We used to just steal foreign films. Their offices opened here and then we had to pay them all the money for the films. Then everyone thought that we shouldn’t do this because we won’t earn any profits this way, the actor further stated.”
“Tab pata chala inn ulluon ko ki humaari kahaniyan kitni powerful hain (that’s when these idiots realised how powerful our stories were) – they are so strong, dramatic, new and innovative. Earlier, it was only stolen work. There was lethargy and mental bankruptcy. When they started working hard, then got results as well. Why go there?”, Paresh added.
On his cinematic front, Paresh Rawal has an exciting slate of films coming up. He will star alongside Akshay Kumar and Tabu in Priyadarshan’s ‘Bhooth Bangla’, set to release in theaters on April 2, 2026. He is also part of ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ and ‘Hera Pheri 3‘, both featuring Akshay Kumar.