Is That My Script in a Sari? French Filmmaker Cries Foul

A fresh controversy has emerged in global cinema, as French filmmaker Fabrice Bracq has raised concerns over perceived similarities between his short film Burqa City (2019) and Kiran Rao’s Indian feature Laapataa Ladies. The debate centres on whether this is a case of creative overlap or an example of ideas travelling across borders without acknowledgement.

Bracq’s short, made in Arabic and completed in 2018, follows a veiled woman trying to escape a controlling marriage. After several viewers drew comparisons between his work and Rao’s feature, Bracq watched Laapataa Ladies and was dismayed by what he described as a number of striking resemblances. Among them are character types — such as a gentle but unaware husband, a controlling and abusive spouse, and a corrupt police officer — along with a major narrative shift involving a woman’s attempt to leave an oppressive domestic setting under the cover of mistaken identity.

Burqa City had its share of attention on the festival circuit, including screenings in Indian cities like Kolkata and Auroville in 2020. Bracq had ambitions to adapt it into a full-length feature, but now finds himself uncertain about that path, especially given the impact Laapataa Ladies has made both commercially and critically — with even international awards buzz surrounding the Indian film.

Meanwhile, the Laapataa Ladies team refutes any suggestion of creative borrowing. Writer Biplab Goswami has stated that the story was officially registered with the Screenwriters Association in 2014 under the provisional title Two Brides, and that the full script was completed in 2018 — predating the release of Burqa City.

This disagreement brings to the surface an age-old concern in cinema: how often do similar stories appear in different parts of the world, and when does resemblance cross the line into something more serious?

Cinematic history offers numerous instances where two works appear to travel similar ground. One well-known example is the comparison drawn between Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010) and Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue (1997), a Japanese psychological thriller. While Aronofsky admitted to purchasing remake rights for Perfect Blue at one point, he denied any direct lifting for Black Swan, and the matter never escalated further.

In India, suspicions arose when the Hindi film Cuttputlli (2022), starring Akshay Kumar, closely mirrored the structure and themes of the Malayalam thriller Joseph (2018). Though Cuttputlli was eventually credited as an official adaptation, the discussion around influence and credit lingered.

Across the Atlantic, a more formal resolution occurred when writer Harlan Ellison brought legal action against James Cameron’s The Terminator (1984), alleging that it borrowed heavily from two of his science fiction stories. The case concluded with a settlement and Ellison receiving credit in subsequent releases of the film.

Such examples illustrate how complex the landscape of storytelling has become. In a world where films can be accessed from any corner of the globe and festival circuits expose creative work to wider audiences, ideas can unintentionally mirror each other — or occasionally lead to genuine disputes over originality.

Whether the current situation between Burqa City and Laapataa Ladies develops further remains to be seen. But it has undoubtedly rekindled the conversation around authorship, artistic integrity, and the blurred lines that often exist between inspiration and imitation in a globally connected film industry.