Laapata Ladies writer denies plagiarism accusations: 'Story, characters 100% original, 1st summary in 2014' | Mint

Laapataa tries makers eventually rejected the allegations that the plot of the film was plagged. In a long Instagram post on Saturday, Biplab Goswami, who wrote the story of Kiran Rao’s award -winning film, said the story, his characters and the dialogues were 100 percent original. He also shared that the first detailed summary for the film in 2014 was submitted with the job title ‘Two Brides’. Earlier this week, users on social media shared a short cut from the Arab short film Burqa City in 2019, which noticed the similarities between the stories of the two films. In Burqa City, a newlywed man wants to find his wife after she is wrong with another woman in a Burka. This plot is similar to Laapataa Ladies, who follows Deepak while looking for his new bride, who is accidentally exchanged with another woman with a ghoong-dressed woman in a train. In a statement, Goswami said the allegations were completely “false”. “Our story, characters and dialogues are 100% original. Any allegations of plagiarism are completely false. These allegations undermine not only my efforts as a writer, but also the tireless efforts of the entire filmmaker team,” he said. Goswami also said the screenplay for Laapataa Dames, which was released in theaters in March 2024 and later selected as India’s official entry until 2025 Oscars, was developed extensively over many years. “I first registered the detailed summary of the film and set out the entire story with the job title ‘Two Brides’, with the Screenwriters Association on July 3, 2014. Even within this registered summary, there is a scene that clearly describes and shocked the bridegroom to realize and shock his mistake. “This is where the story rises. I also clearly wrote about the scene of the concerned groom that went to the police station and showed the only photo of his missing bride to the police officer, but the bride’s face was covered with a veil, which led to a comic moment,” he wrote. Goswami said he registered the feature length script of ‘Two Brides’ with the SWA in June 2018. “This screenplay won the runner-up award at the CINEGEGEGEGERIETTELLERS Competition in 2018. In this screenplay, I amused the scene of the policeman by the photo of the veiled bride,” he added. According to Goswami, the concept of veils and disguises that leads to wrong identities is a classic form of storytelling that has been used for centuries by writers such as William Shakespeare, Alexandre Dumas and Rabindranath Tagore. “Ladataa Ladies uses this wrong identity form with completely original and unique characters, setting, narrative journey and social impact,” he said. “The story, the dialogues, the characters and the scenes all stem from years of research and honest reflection. I was deeply invested in understanding the nuances of gender discrimination and inequality, rural power dynamics and male chauvinisoa on both Indian and global contexts,” he added. Directed by Rao showed Laapataa Dames Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Chhaya Kadam and Ravi Kishan. Rao’s Kindling Pictures produced the film, Aamir Khan’s Aamir Khan Productions and Jio Studios.