You must be living under a rock if you have not heard about the latest controversy surrounding Laapataa Ladies. A video making the rounds online highlighted striking similarities between Kiran Rao’s film and an Arabic short film titled Burqa City, which was released in 2019 — five years before Laapataa Ladies.
Soon after the video went viral, social media users began raising plagiarism allegations against Laapataa Ladies, which was also India’s official entry to the Oscars this year.
Now, Fabrice Bracq, the director of Burqa City, has raised concerns about the originality of Laapataa Ladies in a statement.
“First of all, even before watching the film, I was surprised by how closely the pitch matched that of my short film. Then I watched the film, and I was both surprised and shocked to see that, although the story had been adapted to Indian culture, many aspects of my short film were clearly present,” Fabrice said as quoted by India Today.
He continued, “Notably – and this is by no means an exhaustive list – the kind, loving, naive husband who loses his wife, contrasted with the other husband who is violent and despicable. The scene with the police officer is also striking: a corrupt, violent, and intimidating policeman surrounded by two sidekicks. Of course, there’s the moment with the photo of the veiled woman.”
Pointing out the similarities in the plot, Fabrice Bracq said, “The scene where the kind husband searches for his wife in various shops is particularly revealing – he shows the shopkeepers a photo of his veiled wife, just like in the short film, and then the shopkeeper’s wife comes out wearing a burqa, almost like a nod to Burqa City. There’s also the similarity in the plot twist at the end, where we learn that the woman deliberately chose to run away from her abusive husband – a key narrative element in Burqa City.”
The filmmaker concluded by saying, “And more broadly, the film carries a similar message about women’s emancipation and feminism.”
On Saturday, Laapataa Ladies writer Biplab Goswami responded to the controversy and claimed that his story is “100% original.” He stated that he had registered the synopsis of Laapataa Ladies with the Screenwriters Association in 2014, before the Arabic film was even made. Click here to read his full statement.
Released in 2024, Laapataa Ladies follows the story of two brides who are accidentally swapped during a train journey. The film features Pratibha Ranta, Nitanshi Goel and Sparsh Shrivastava in pivotal roles.
