'It can't be a coincidence': Anant Mahadevan says Laapataa Ladies is copied

Filmmaker Anant Mahadevan has claimed that Kiran Rao-directed 'Laapataa Ladies' is plagiarised. He alleged the idea was copied from his directorial debut movie 'Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol'

Ananth Mahadevan accuses 'Laapataa Ladies' makers of plagiarism stating that they copied 'Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol' storyline which was the debut directorial venture of Mahadevan, without his knowledge. 

He claimed that the Netflix movie was 'inspired' by the 1999 movie 'Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol', which was created for Channel 9 from Australia. He also pointed out that the resemblance of the storyline ‘cannot be a coincidence.’ 

Mahadevan recently appeared on Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri's YouTube Channel, 'I Am Buddha', when he ended his silence over plagiarism allegations against the originality of the Kiran Rao directorial 'Laapataa Ladies', claims that the idea of 'Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol' was telecasted on DD Metro. 

He mentioned that many movies are made on Bhagat Singh and their resemblance is quite natural as he is popular, “but brides getting mixed up at a railway station cannot be a coincidence.” 

However, he maintained that he does not believe either director Kiran Rao or producer Aamir Khan were aware of the alleged copying. 

Anant Mahadevan clarified that he is not trying to call out Kiran Rao or Aamir Khan, but the writer of Laapataa Ladies who did not acknowledge the original movie. 

Kiran and Aamir may not be aware of this or maybe this information was hidden from them, the filmmaker claimed. When the writer of 'Laapataa Ladies' was asked about the controversy, he said he doesn't do things like this and it's an original idea. 

The original idea of Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol

Mahadevan also shared how he got the idea of writing Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol. He said he was sitting with Farooq Sheikh and shooting for Chamatkar. During the break, Kappu Saab said, ‘After our marriage, my wife was wearing a veil. Since I had to immediately leave for a shoot, I took her along and sat her down at a bus station.''

When Kappu went to check the bus timing, he saw that his wife was going with another man carrying his trunk. After hearing this, Farooq Sheikh Saab said there's a story in it. It was absolutely novel. Hence we started writing, revealed Mahadevan.