Laapataa Ladies: Burqa City director wants to ‘have a discussion’ with Kiran Rao directorial's production team about its similarities with his film

Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies recently came under fire when social media users noted similarities in its plot with Arabic short film, Burqa City. While writer Biplab Goswami has already issued his clarification on the matter, Burqa City director on the other hand also addressed the controversy and expressed his desire to meet the makers of the film. 

During a recent conversation with IFP, Burqa City director Fabrice Bracq revealed that he had not watched Laapataa Ladies until the similarities were brought to his notice. He mentioned that after watching Kiran Rao’s directorial, he was "both shocked and saddened" as he realized that the film was a "huge success" in India and was even sent for the Oscars. 

He also expressed his concern, highlighting his initials plans of adapting his short film into a feature film, which he believes would not be possible now.  

Upon further being asked about his next step to address the issue after watching Indian satirical comedy, he mentioned, "For now, I’m not sure—  probably to have a discussion with the production team of Laapataa Ladies."

In addition to this, Fabrice also agreed to the similarities between his film and Laapataa Ladies noting— both the films have ‘kind, loving, naive husband’, the ‘violent and despicable’ husband, ‘corrupt, violent’ police officer and specifically the photo of the veiled woman.

The director also said, “There’s also 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.” 

During the conversation, the Burqa City director revealed that his film was written and shot in 2017 and 2018 respectively before being screened at festivals in 2019. It was also shown at two Indian film festivals including—Kolkata: Kalpanirjhar International Short film festival (Dec 2019) and Auroville: Auroville Film Festival (Jan 2020) where it was also awarded.  

On the other hand, Laapataa Ladies writer Biplab Goswami issued a statement on Saturday and claimed to have registered Laapataa Ladies with the Screenwriters Association in 2014 and the feature-length script with SWA in 2018 with the title Two Brides. “These allegations not just undermine my efforts as a writer, but also the tireless efforts of the entire filmmaking team,” he wrote.

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