Kiran Rao’s much talked about Oscar entry movie, Laapataa Ladies, has found itself in the midst of another controversy. While the movie received rave reviews and was highly appreciated, netizens have pointed out similarities between this film and the 2019 Arabic film Burqa City. Recently, a video from the Arabic movie started doing the rounds on social media, where netizens were quick to point out how similar it is to Laapataa Ladies.
The viral clip showed a newlywed man searching for his wife after she mistakenly gets replaced with another woman wearing a burqa.
An X user by the name of @theskindoctor13 posted on X, “Kiran Rao’s Lapata Ladies, India’s official entry to the Oscars and projected as an original work, actually seems heavily inspired by a 2019 short film titled Burqa City.
Set in Middle East, the 19 min film follows a newlywed man whose wife gets exchanged due to identical burqas. He then embarks on a journey to find her. The satirical comedy highlights the absurdity of a society where women are treated as interchangeable objects rather than unique individuals, critiquing extreme patriarchy, gender-based restrictions, and the loss of identity.
Kiran Rao made Lapata Ladies, with the same theme, replacing burqas with ghoonghats. The film carried the same message about patriarchy, societal norms, and women’s identity. Even the Ravi Kishan police station scene seems heavily inspired.”
Check out the post here:
Kiran Rao’s Lapata Ladies, India’s official entry to the Oscars and projected as an original work, actually seems heavily inspired by a 2019 short film titled Burqa City.
Set in Middle East, the 19 min film follows a newlywed man whose wife gets exchanged due to identical… pic.twitter.com/b7GcHN2MmI
— THE SKIN DOCTOR (@theskindoctor13) March 31, 2025
Here is how netizens reacted to the plagiarism claims.
So what will you call it? Inspiration or Copy?
— Chintan Panchal (@chintan5900) March 31, 2025
And this was India’s official entry to Oscars.🤦
— Shining Star (@ShineHamesha) March 31, 2025
Nothing that Bollywood produces seems to be an original work of art. They are all brazenly copy pasted from somewhere else, shamelessly billed as original work
— Brutal Truth (@sarkarstix) March 31, 2025
It screams duplicity and sad to see copied/ inspired work like Laapataa Ladies presented as original for the Oscars.
They also conveniently shifted from a Muslim to Hindu context in India just to fit a narrative feels disingenuous and unfair.
— Ankit (@ankitruhil95) March 31, 2025
It’s intriguing that Lapata Ladies has drawn comparisons to Burqa City given the striking similarities in themes and narrative structure. If Rao’s film indeed mirrors key aspects of Burqa City, it raises valid questions about originality and the fine line between inspiration and…
— Sumit Arora (@kingsumitarora) April 1, 2025
Long before the foreign movie, there was ghoonghat in Hindi. Same story
— smita mishra 🇮🇳 (@missartola) March 31, 2025
However, this is not the first time Kiran Rao’s film has been accused of plagiarism. Earlier, actor-director Anant Mahadevan accused her of copying his film. He mentioned that his debut feature film Ghoonghat Ke Pat Khol was also the tale of two brides who got exchanged by mistake on a train and they land in Bombay with wrong husbands.
“Amused and humbled to find that it has inspired a similar film this year,” Mahadevan wrote.