a stranger on fire

The burning (stinking pun there) question about Apurva Apoorva (that's how the credit reads on the soundtrack CD sleeve) Lakhia's Ek Ajnabee was: is it Léon or is it Man on Fire? Well, one of the greatest non-actors that Bollywood has been encouraging over the last few years, Arjun Rampal, has something to tell us.

First, the usual "this is not a copy, but a " nonsense. And then, the beans spill out (with some emphasis of my own):

I have seen Man On Fire and our film is very different from that. Like [sic] my character is not even there in the English film. In fact, Apu has adapted the original French novel for his film and has incorporated elements of his own.

French??? Man on Fire was based on an A. J. Quinnell book. No French here. The only French elements come from Léon (Luc Besson, to be precise).

Which means we might be a little shy of square one at this point.

Confusion reveals multiple inheritance? The strange darkness persists.