New Delhi, 5 April

Biplab Goswami, who penned the story of Kiran Rao's critically-acclaimed film "Laapataa Ladies", on Saturday dismissed the claims that the movie's plot has been plagiarised.

Many social media users earlier this week shared a short clip from 2019 Arabic short film "Burqa City", noticing similarities between the stories of the two movies.

In "Burqa City", a newlywed man sets out to find his wife after she is mistaken for another woman in a burqa.

Similarly, "Laapataa Ladies" follows Deepak as he searches for his new bride, who is accidentally swapped with another ghoonghat-clad woman on a train.

In a statement, posted on his official Instagram page, Goswami said the allegations are completely "untrue".

"Our story, characters, and dialogues are 100% original. Any allegations of plagiarism are completely untrue. These allegations not just undermine my efforts as a writer, but also the tireless efforts of the entire filmmaking team," he said.

Goswami also said the screenplay for "Laapataa Ladies", which released in theatres in March 2024 and was later selected as India's official entry to 2025 Oscars, was developed extensively over many years.

According to Goswami, the concept of veils and disguises resulting in mistaken identities is a classical form of storytelling used for centuries by writers such as William Shakespeare, Alexandre Dumas and Rabindranath Tagore.