Was Laapataa Ladies copied from Arabic film Burqa City? Video goes viral, netizens say ‘Cut, Copy and Paste’
Laapataa Ladies accused of plagiarism after clips of similar scenes from 2019 Arabic film Burqa City go viral on social media.
A year ago in 2024, Kiran Rao made her comeback as a director with Laapataa Ladies, co-produced by her ex-husband and actor-filmmaker Aamir Khan. She introduced the country to talented newcomers Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta and Sparsh Shrivastav who got a chance to debut alongside seasoned actors Chhaya Kadam and Ravi Kishan. The story by Biplab Goswami, the screenplay and the stellar performances not only made Laapataa Ladies a milestone in Bollywood but also the Indian entry for the Best International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards. It received a lot of love from across the country, from fans and critics alike! But today Laapataa Ladies is making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao’s comedy drama Laapataa Ladies is being accused of plagiarism. Netizens are convinced that this Bollywood film is ‘heavily inspired’ by a 19 minute long Arabic short film titled Burqa City, clips of which are doing the rounds on the internet. Set in the Middle East, the 2019 film follows the story of a newlywed man whose Burqa-clad wife gets exchanged with another woman dressed in a Burqa. Meanwhile in Laapataa Ladies, two newlywed ghoongat-clad brides get exchanged on a train. One scene which seems quite identical to fans is when the man goes to the police station and shows the cop a picture of his wife — Burqa-clad in Burqa City and ghoongat-clad in Laapataa Ladies.
Well, the internet is not too pleased and many have already expressed their disappointment without waiting for Kiran or Aamir’s official statement. For instance, one social media user stated, “You can make out from a this 1 minute clip itself.... Bloody whole country is running on Cut, Copy and Paste....no originality at all in all fields.... Aise to nahi ban payenge Vishwaguru,” whereas another angry netizen shared, “Ought to be ashamed.. copied the storyline, twisted it to suit their agenda and then act as if it's their own original brain child. Can't trust this now rotten industry.” A tweet read, “It screams duplicity and sad to see copied/ inspired work like Laapataa Ladies presented as original for the Oscars. They also conveniently shifted from a Muslim to Hindu context in India just to fit a narrative feels disingenuous and unfair,” whereas another internet user shared, “Arre yaar! So many women got emotional thinking it was an original story! At least bring something new, yaar. Just swapping burqas for ghoonghats and calling it fresh? Wah re creativity!”
Meanwhile, there were some who claimed that Laapataa Ladies is actually very similar to Ananth Mahadevan’s 1999 film Ghoonghat Ke Pat Kholi, something that the filmmaker had also pointed out last year. One such fan stated, “There was a telefilm named "ghoonghat ke pat khol" on exact same theme, brides exchanged because of ghoonghat in train journey, aired on dd metro in early 2000's. That seems like an original plot on which all these seems based on,” whereas another shared, “In the late 90s, there was a serial 'घूंघट के पट खोल' which had 5 episodes or something and was broadcast on Doordarshan. I vividly remember that serial. It had the same storyline in which 2 newly married couples had some mishap at the railway station and their wives got swapped.”
What are your thoughts after seeing the viral clip of Burqa City?
