Mumbai: "Padman" director R Balki has
brushed off allegations of plagiarism against his recently-
released film, calling the claims "silly" and "foolish".
Writer Ripu Daman Jaiswal has accused the makers of the
Akshay Kumar-Radhika Apte starrer of copying 11 scenes from a
script that he had written.
"That's so foolish. After every film, some people
foolishly make these claims," Balki told PTI, dismissing the
allegations.
The film is a fictionalised account of Tamil Nadu-based
Arunachalam Muruganantham, who created affordable sanitary
napkins for the women of his village.
"My film is an official biography of Muruganantham. Is he
accusing Muruganantham of leading a life that has been copied
from his writing? That's so silly," Balki said.
Jaiswal also alleged that a dialogue, narrated by
megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the film, has been taken from his
script that he had sent to Ryan Stephan, creative head of
Karan Johar's Dharma Productions.
"I remember I was in the library when I wrote this
dialogue and was truly elated. Honestly, I surprised myself
that day. Tell me, how on earth can you steal someone's
dialogue? This is unfair," he had tweeted.
The writer also said that he has filed an FIR against
Akshay and the filmmakers.
"R Balki! I tried everything! I even filed a police
complaint at Cuffe Parade station on 23rd of Jan against
everyone. Tell me, what more can I do?
"S.I. told me I have a good case and they will look into
the matter and will call me after investigation. Am still
waiting for that call (sic)," Daman had tweeted.
When contacted Senior Police Inspector of Cuff Parade,
Rashmi Jadhav said, "There is one application received from
Jaiswal, in which he has claimed copyright of his script. But
no offence has been registered in this case."
Two months ago, Daman had shared a post on Facebook where
he attached the screenshots of the mail he had sent to Dharma
Productions.
PTI
