Ananth Mahadevan claims Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies is similar to his 1999 film Ghoonghat Ke Pat Khol: ‘Many incidents are the same’

In the past I had appreciated Laapataa Ladies, and it is now being celebrated for surpassing views of Animal on Netflix.
But little did I know, that it has been copied from @ananthmahadevan‘s “Ghoonghat ke pat khol”.
Which was first aired in 1999 on Doordarshan Gold under their… pic.twitter.com/QqzxAMciDd

— Nivedita Shukla (Modi ji ka Pariwar) (@OfRunjh) May 24, 2024

She also alleged that since the release of Lapataa Ladies, Ananth’s film had been taken down from YouTube, where it was previously available. “Surprisingly, the telefilm which was available on YouTube, has now been removed after Laapataa Ladies picked up and Ananth called out the makers. All that morality, work ethic gyan and self-righteousness to dump on the public but when it comes to practicing it, then all goes down the drain,” she added. Annath thanked her and other netizens for their support on X, thereby endorsing the view that his film was probably an inspiration for Kiran Rao’s film.

Ananth Mahadevan has maintained that Laapataa Ladies has similar plot points as Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol, which revolved around two brides. In in interview with Mid Day, he had said, “I have seen Laapataa Ladies, and the beginning as well as many incidents are the same. In our film, a boy from the city goes to his village to get married. The mix-up happens at the railway station when he asks his new bride, who is in a ghunghat, to wait on a bench [while he goes looking for some information]. When he returns, he joins the wrong bride. The story then follows the two women as they correct the mix-up, only to realise that they have feelings for the other’s partner. So, the four characters annul their original marriage, swap their partners again, and get married.”

 

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However Lapataa Ladies and Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol tell different stories as the similarities end after the wrong bride is taken away. On this, Mahadevan said, “The scene where the cop looks at the woman’s photograph and can’t make out much because she is in a ghunghat, is there in my film. Except in my film, it’s not a cop but another character.”

Reacting to Ananth’s allegations, Laapataa Ladies’ Biplab Goswami had told the publication that he had submitted the script at the Cinestaan India’s Storytellers Contest in 2018 and his story is original. He said, “I received the first runner-up award for it. I wrote the synopsis a decade ago. My story, script, dialogues, characterisation and scenes are all 100 per cent original. I have not been inspired by any story, movie or novel.”

“I have not watched Ananth Mahadevan ji’s movie. I was also recently asked if it’s inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s Bengali novel, Noukadubi. A 60-year-old producer called me much before the film’s release to tell me that a similar episode happened with his mother when she was a bride. I studied about gender discrimination, inequality in villages and male chauvinism when I was a student at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata. I won’t copy somebody else’s story as we are taught the basic ethics and moralities of writing,” Biplab concluded.

Kiran Rao’s film Laapataa Ladies stars Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava and Ravi Kishan.