Devi: Kajol & Neha Dhupia’s Short Film Lands In Plagiarism Row; Read On

After giving an impactful performance in Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, Kajol made a ravishing entry on the web space as well. Her debut film Devi released just a few days back and received a lot of love from the audience and critics. The story, written and directed by Priyanka Banerjee, revolves around 9 women and their lives.

However, the filmmakers of Devi, which is a tale of sisterhood and rape victims, have hit a roadblock. Abhishek Rai, a student of Asian Academy Of Film And Television, Noida, has claimed that the idea of the film has been stolen from his short film ‘Four’, that he had made for a college project. The ex-student took to his Facebook page and accused the makers of plagiarism and revealed how heartbreaking was it for him.

He wrote, “Here’s something I’d like to bring to everybody’s notice. We at AndaKurry Productions, made a short film when we were in film school, 2 years back called ‘FOUR’ that dealt with a premise of rape victims sitting together in a room when a new victim arrives. And yesterday, a film named ‘Devi’ was uploaded to LargeShortFilms’s YouTube channel that has heavy resemblance and the premise is also of the film we made.”

He further wrote, “Of course our film was a student film, with very little production design, bad audio and stuff, but still it’s a child of our own imagination and it’s ruthless how anyone can just pick up a piece of thought and claim it to be theirs. The film is an intellectual property of Asian Academy of Film & Television. Now, I have not been contacted by large short films or the makers of the film regarding any kind of query. This saddens me and I’d want your support to be heard so we can take action against the makers and the platform.”

For the uninitiated, Devi is a suspense drama featuring Kajol, Shruti Haasan in their debut digital project. The film depicts how nine women from distinct strata of society are forced into a sisterhood owing to a circumstance, where they are compelled to share their stories of abuse.

Devi also stars Neha Dhupia, Neena Kulkarni, Mukta Barve, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Yashaswini Dayama, Sandhya Mhatre and Rama Joshi. The film was released by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films on March 2.

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