‘Laapataa Ladies’ writer Biplab Goswami reacts to plagiarism claims

Kiran Rao’s highly acclaimed drama ‘Laapataa Ladies’ was recently accused of being heavily inspired by the 2019 Arabic film ‘Burqa City’.

Now, writer Biplab Goswami has reacted to the plagiarism allegation with an Instagram post, terming these allegations ‘baseless’.

He asserted that the screenplay of ‘Laapataa Ladies’ was developed extensively over the years. Biplab shared that he 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.

He went on to add, “Even within this registered synopsis, there is a scene that clearly describes the groom bringing home the wrong bride and being shocked and stricken upon realising his mistake because of the veil, along with the rest of his family. This is where the story takes off. I had also clearly written about the scene of the worried groom going to the police station and showing the only photograph he had of his missing bride to the police officer, but the bride’s face was covered with a veil, resulting in a comedic moment.”

Goswami also opened up about the extensive research done by him on issues such as gender disparity and patriarchal systems, both within rural India and globally.

He informed that he registered the script of ‘Two Brides’ with the SWA in June 2018, and the script also won the runner-up award at the Cinestaan Storytellers Competition in 2018.

Goswami stressed that the concept of veils and disguises resulting in mistaken identities is a classical form of storytelling used for centuries by celebrated writers such as William Shakespeare, Alexandre Dumas, and Rabindranath Tagore.

The writer cleared the air saying, “Our story, characters, and dialogues are 100% original. Any allegations of plagiarism are completely untrue. These allegations not just undermine my efforts as a writer, but also the tireless efforts of the entire filmmaking team.”