Akshay Kumar’s Toilet: Ek Prem Katha in legal controversy
Documentary filmmaker Praveen Vyas files plagiarism alleging that the idea behind ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ has been lifted from his 2016 documentary, ‘Manini’
‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ starring Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar is in the news for plagiarism. Documentary filmmaker Praveen Vyas has alleged that the idea behind the film has been lifted from his 2016 documentary, ‘Manini’.
Siddharth and Garima, the writers of ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ state in their defence that they had registered the script with the Film Writers Association in August 2014. Garima said, “The script was commissioned to us by Neeraj Pandey (filmmaker) in 2013 itself, so we have been working on it since December that year.” According to the writers, a similar real-life story was in the news around that time and hence they decided to ‘fictionalise the rest of the story’ and come up with their own version. Siddharth added, “Neeraj sir liked that and asked us to go ahead with it. After that, we went ahead with the research and visited places like Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Nandgaon, Barsana, Jhansi and Bahraich, which is near Lucknow.” Siddharth and Garima were asked by the makers of ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ to set the story in Mathura. “We were very happy when they choose to base the film in Mathura, as that’s the milieu that we were also looking for,” said Garima, adding that the allegation of plagiarism has ‘come out of the blue’. “It’s not possible to pick up a story from any documentary and make a film in a few weeks. How is to plausible, especially with a film that stars mainstream actors? If our work is subjected to criticism, we are fine with it. But it’s ridiculous, frustrating and insulting for us to hear that we have copied someone’s work,” said Garima.
‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ writers Siddharth and Garima plan to fight the plagiarism row legally. “Right now, we are verifying the facts and other details. Once we are done, in all likelihood, we are going to file a defamation case. It’s amazing how people come up with such allegations just before the release for their 15 minutes of fame,” concluded Garima. ‘Toilet – Ek Prem Katha’ is a satirical take on the age old tradition of open defecation in India. Directed by Shree Narayan Singh, ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ will release on August 11, 2017.
