Burqa City maker on similarities with Aamir Khan-Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies: ‘I was both shocked and saddened’

Listing out the similarities between Burqa City and Laapataa Ladies, director Fabrice Bracq said that characters of both the husbands, and scenes with the police officer and his sidekicks were common to both the movies.

By: Entertainment Desk

Chennai | April 6, 2025 06:13 PM IST

3 min read

Burqa City maker addresses similarities with Laapataa Ladies.

India’s official entry to the Oscars, Laapataa Ladies has run into a plagiarism controversy… again. Although the makers had previously downplayed similarities with Indian filmmaker Ananth Mahadevan’s Gunghat ke Pat Khol, they are now facing similar accusations regarding an Arabic short film titled Burqa City (2019), directed by Fabrice Bracq. However, Biplab Goswami, who wrote the Kiran Rao directorial with Sneha Desai, has categorically rejected the claims, and said, “The screenplay for Laapataa Ladies was developed extensively over many years. I first registered the film’s detailed synopsis, outlining the entire story with the working title ‘Two Brides’, with the Screenwriters Association on July 3, 2014.”

Nevertheless, the IFP reached out to French director Fabrice Bracq to discuss the controvery, and the filmmaker revealed that he didn’t know of the existence of Laapataa Ladies till it was brought to his notice by the former. “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 were clearly present,” said Fabrice.

Listing out the similarities between Burqa City and Laapataa Ladies, Fabrice said that characters of both the husbands, and scenes with the police officer and his sidekicks were common to both the movies. “Of course, there is the moment with the photo of the veiled woman where the kind husband searches for his wife in various shops. 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.”

The filmmaker also shared that the woman leaving her abusive husband was also a salient feature of Burqa City. “The film carries a similar message about women’s emancipation and feminism,” said Fabrice, who revealed that he hadn’t seen Rabindranath Tagore’s Noukadubi, Rituparno Ghosh’s feature film adaptation of the same name, and Ghunghat ke Pat Khol, which have been speculated as source materials for Laapataa Ladies.

“When I found out, I was both shocked and saddened, especially since I understood that the film has been a huge success in India, and was even shortlisted for the Oscars. As for me, I had hopes, and was in discussions to adapt Burqa City into a feature film. But is that even possible now?” signed off Fabrice, adding that he would have a discussion with the team of Laapataa Ladies as the next step.

ALSO READ: Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies accused of plagiarising Arabic film Burqa City, netizens say, ‘We send copied film to Oscars and end up with egg on face’

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Backed by Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, and Jyoti Deshpande, Laapataa Ladies was headlined by Nitanshi Goel, Sparsh Srivastava, Pratibha Ranta, Chhaya Kadam, and Ravi Kishan.

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