‘Alia Bhatt isn’t bankrupt, doesn’t need to steal ideas’: Savi producer says T-Series boss Bhushan Kumar’s wife Divya Khosla created Jigra vs Savi row

Alia Bhatt's Jigra landed in some controversy when Divya Khosla claimed that Alia's film's plot was similar to her film Savi.

Alia Bhatt's Jigra faced comparisons with Divya Khosla's Savi when it released.

Alia Bhatt hasn’t witnessed many flops in her 13-year long career so in 2024, when her film Jigra tanked at the box office, it came as a shock to her fans. Directed by Vasan Bala and produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, the film witnessed something that resembled a hate campaign where the film could not generate any positive buzz before the release. This was accompanied by actor Divya Khosla accusing the makers of Jigra of copying her film Savi’s plot, and also inflating their box office figures. Interestingly, Savi was produced by Alia’s uncle Mukesh Bhatt, who co-produced it with Divya’s husband Bhushan Kumar, of T-Series. In a recent interview, Mukesh implied that Divya was trying to generate controversy for her film and shielded Alia from any wrongdoing as he said that she is “too big” to engage in practices where she has to steal ideas.

In a chat with Lehren Retro, Mukesh started by saying that he had still not seen Jigra, which was said to be similar to Savi. When asked how Divya bashed Jigra and claimed that Karan Johar’s film was copied from her film, he said, “What Divya did for publicity, I don’t know about that. But Jigra, if I am not mistaken, Mahesh had made a film for Yash Johar called Gumrah, which was inspired by Bangkok Hilton. I think that film was the inspiration behind Jigra.”

Yash Johar was the father of Karan Johar, and the 1993 film Gumrah, starring Sridevi and Sanjay Dutt also had a similar plot. Mukesh said that for Savi, he bought the rights for The Next Three Days, starring Russell Crowe, and flipped the gender of the lead, and eventually, Divya played that role. Calling the comparisons a publicity stunt, Mukesh added, “To get some attention in the media, you can create some controversy. Everyone needs some publicity. And for publicity, you need some controversy.”

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Defending Alia, he said, “Alia Bhatt is a major star, and if you raise something like this with a bigger star, you can create some controversy. I don’t think Alia Bhatt is that bankrupt that she has to steal ideas from my films. She is too big a person, she doesn’t need to do all this. She is a very sorted, intelligent, decent and good girl. She can’t even dream of doing something that’s so low. I can guarantee you that because I know her.” He then added, “Alia is too big for this. Usko yeh chichori harkat karne ki zarurat nahi hai (She doesn’t need to do something this cheap.)”

Alia will next be seen in YRF’s Spy-verse film Alpha, which is scheduled to release in April 2026.

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