Why Yashica Dutt is demanding credit for Made in Heaven: From Anurag Kashyap to show makers, who said what

Since the episode’s release, author Yashica Dutt has claimed that her life and work was used as a source of inspiration in the episode but the makers – Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti – did not credit her. Since then, the makers and the author have had a lot of back and forth on social media with the makers claiming that Yashica’s claims are baseless, and the author insisting that this is unfair.

Here are 9 points to get you up to speed on the controversy:

1. 01

   Yashica Dutt demands credit in Made in heaven 2: 'Surreal to see a version of my life on screen'

   Soon after the episode dropped online, many social commentators praised it but a few days later, author Yashica Dutt, known for her memoir Coming Out As Dalit, shared a social media post saying that the makers had used her life's experiences in the episode but not credited her for the same. Yashica shared a series of tweets on X (formerly Twitter). A part of her tweets read, "The scene where the Dalit author who is from Columbia, has written a book about ‘Coming Out’, and talks about how her grandmother ‘manually cleaned toilets’ (while wearing all blue as an homage to Ambedkar), asserts her selfhood with her life partner to-be, gave me chills. It was surreal to see a version of my life on screen that wasn’t but yet was still me. But soon the heartbreak set in. They were my words but my name was nowhere. What could have been a celebration of our collective ideas was now tinged with sadness. The ideas I cultivated, that are my life’s work, that I continue to receive immense hate still for just speaking, were taken without permission or credit."

   Yashica demanded that the creators of the show, Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, and director Neeraj Ghaywan, must "formally acknowledge" her "work and ideas that contributed to this episode."

2. 02

   Neeraj Ghaywan credits Yashica Dutt on Instagram

   Yashica pointed out that director Neraj had credited her contribution in an Instagram post only after netizens pointed out that similarities between Pallavi's character and Yashica. A part of Neeraj's Instagram post read, "Thanks to @yashicadutt and her book (Coming Out as a Dalit) which made the term "coming out" become part of the popular culture lexicon for owning one's Dalit identity. This inspired Pallavi's interview section in the episode."

3. 03

   Made in Heaven makers 'categorically deny' Yashica's claims

   Days after Yashica's claims, Made in Heaven makers issued a statement insisting that Pallavi Menke was a "fictional character" and said that none of the events in the episode were "drawn from Yashica Dutt's life or her book - Coming Out As Dalit. We categorically deny any claim that Ms Dutt's or work was appropriated by us."

   Another part of their statement read, "Pallavi Menke's fictional book, 'Denied' is a hat-tip to several books like Ants Among Elephants by Sujatha Gidla, Caste Matters by Suraj Yehngde, Coming out as Dalit by Yashica Dutt and Tarshi article by Sumit Baudh." The statement was co-signed by creators Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, co-writer Alankrita Shrivastava and director Neeraj Ghaywan.

4. 04

   Fans ask why Neeraj changed his stance

   Neeraj's stance on the subject had many pointing out that the director had previously credited Yashica for inspiring him for the opening scene of the episode. "So sorry sir but your last post was literally about taking inspiration from her & this post is a complete disagreement," read one comment, while another comment read, "You've literally written in your pinned comment that the interview part was inspired by Yashica. Now you're saying nothing was inspired by her life or her book. Then you say we have drawn inspired from the shared literature of a bunch of Dalit writers. Well, so which one is it?"

5. 05

   Neeraj Ghaywan gets emotional, says personal experiences inspired him

   A few days later, in an interview with Mid-day, Neeraj said that he also drew inspiration from his personal experiences while filming the episode. When asked if the character is based on his own life, the director said, "Yes it’s me." The director opened up about using Kumar as his last name for many years of his life, much like the character in the episode and said, "For the longest time I have had Kumar because as soon as you tell someone your full name, there is the last name scrutiny in our country, there is an endemic." He added that his family members were "miffed" after he reclaimed his identity as a Dalit man in public. "They felt miffed, that I put them out there, it’s in the press, everybody knows they’re related to me," he said. Neeraj was visibly emotional when he spoke about the incident.

6. 06

   Radhika Apte's take on the credit debate

   Radhika Apte, who played Pallavi in the episode, was also asked about the controversy and told indianexpress.com that she liked the part that was envisioned for the screen but as far as the controversy was concerned, she believed that "it would really not be right for me to comment any further on this as I am not the creator. However, having said that I do appreciate and I do feel that both the sides of this conflict, they both do believe that what has happened by representing a Dalit wedding in a mainstream TV show has only good effects and good consequences and the both are hoping that they continue. So, I think that’s a good thing."

7. 07

   Anurag Kashyap calls Yashica an 'opportunist'

   Recently, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap also spoke about the issue and said that he saw Yashica as an "opportunist" who was only looking for "validation." He told Bollywood Hungama. "So, if you are only looking for validation then to me you look like an opportunist and nothing more than that. And I have seen that man (Neeraj) who found courage to be the voice, struggle, shrink because he got attacked by his very people. Then what is important in this day and age when we talk about representation? Is representation more important than self? Is yourself bigger than the representation? Because then you are a false self. You are a badge wearer. You are not really representing something and that makes me angry."

8. 08

   Yashica claims Alankrita 'took the words out of my mouth, put them on screen'

   Just a day after Anurag's comments, Yashica took to social media again and claimed that co-writer Alankrita Shrivastava met her in 2022 and "took the words out of my mouth and put them on screen" implying that Alankrita had indeed used her as a resource. Yashica accused the makers of launching a "coordinated attack of mass reporting my social media accounts to get them banned" and launched a "misogynistic hate campaign" from a "handful of Dalits."

   She wrote, "Was it not ‘misleading’ when Alankrita Shrivastav, the writer and director of Made in Heaven, who also co-signed the condescending statement, requested a meeting with me in New York on July 15, 2022 that lasted five hours?"

9. 09

   Alankrita claims episode was already shot when she met Yashica

   Alankrita, in a post on X, claimed that the episode in question was already shot in 2021 and her visit to New York was in 2022. "The Pallavi Menke story was shot in October 2021. I went to New York in July 2022," she wrote."