ANANTH MAHADEVAN ON LAAPATAA LADIES PLAGIARISM ROW: ‘IT CANNOT BE A COINCIDENCE…’
Months after Ananth Mahadevan levelled allegations of plagiarism against the makers of Laapataa Ladies, claiming the Kiran Rao directorial was copied from his debut directorial venture Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol (1999), the actor-filmmaker has opened up about the matter. Mahadevan, however, maintained that he does not believe either Rao or the film's producer, Bollywood icon Aamir Khan, were aware of the alleged copying.
"Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol was made for Channel 9 from Australia and was telecast on DD Metro. Several films being made on Bhagat Singh is quite natural because he was famous. But a premise like brides getting mixed up at a railway station... it cannot be a coincidence. I was very amused, frankly, because we are all colleagues here, whether it's Aamir or Kiran. We've all worked together. I was also flattered that they actually wanted to think about this (story)," he said during a chat with director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri on the latter's YouTube channel I Am Buddha. Mahadevan added that while the initial portions of both movies is similar, Laapataa Ladies diverges to focus on women's freedom and their fight for rights afterwards.
"For all you know, Aamir and Kiran didn't even know about this. Maybe this (information) was kept from them. But when Laapataa Ladies' writer was asked about this (the controversy) during an interview, he said he doesn't do things like that and stated that it's an original story," he added.
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Explaining how he conceived the idea for Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol, Ananth Mahadevan credited veteran character actor Satyen Kappu. "We were sitting with Farooq Sheikh and shooting for Chamatkar. Once, 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. Then I went to check the bus timing. When I returned, my wife was missing. When I looked around, I saw her walking away with the porter who was carrying my trunk. So, she thought it was me.' Hearing this, Farooq Sheikh saab said there's a story in this. It was absolutely novel. So, we started writing," Mahadevan recalled. The filmmaker also mentioned that he laughed off the matter, though, he added, it would have been nice if the Laapataa Ladies writer had acknowledged inspiration from his film, if that were the case.
After Laapataa Ladies was screened at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Mahadevan took to his Instagram account to share a poster of Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol and a few words regarding it. "My very first full length feature GHOONGHAT KE PAT KHOL was for Channel9 Gold, the Australian producer who opened shop in India in 1999. It was a delightful story of two brides in the traditional Ghunghat getting mixed up in a train and finding themselves in Bombay with the wrong husband. The search for the right man and wife ends in a twist that challenges tradition and redefines the institution of marriage. The late Hrishikesh Mukherjee loved it so much, he saw it twice! Amused and humbled to find that it has inspired a similar film this year 😉," he wrote.
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2024-07-02T16:20:45Z dg43tfdfdgfd