'If someone would have asked me...' The writer of Laapataa Ladies broke his silence on the film being called a copy of 'Burqa City'

Posted on 7th Apr 2025 by rohit kumar

Missing Ladies was released in theaters last year and was highly appreciated by the audience and critics. The film was included in the list of most watched movies on OTT. Not only this, the film was screened in many international premieres. It was also awarded the IIFA Award for Best Film Original.

 

Missing Ladies is directed by Aamir Khan's ex-wife and director Kiran Rao, while its story is written by Biplab Goswami. Recently the film was accused of plagiarism. Social media users believe that Missing Ladies is a copy of the 2019 film Burqa City directed by Fabrice Brac.

 

Missing Ladies is a copy of Burqa City.

 

Many scenes of Burqa City are similar to Missing Ladies. Like the actor going to the police station when his wife goes missing and asking the police to find her by showing the photo of his wife in burqa. In such a situation, social media users say that this film is a copy of Burqa City. Now writer Biplab Goswami has broken his silence on these allegations.

 

The writer of Missing Ladies spoke in comparison with Burqa City.

 

In an interview given to Hindustan Times, writer of Missing Ladies Biplab Goswami said, "I had registered my story with the Screenwriters Association in 2014. I have proof, then the entire script was written in 2018. No one even asked me. I did not know till Saturday that comparisons were being made with Burqa City."

 

Writer Biplab Goswami's pain spilled out.

Biplab Goswami further said, "Our Missing Ladies team talked about these allegations, everyone was thinking what is happening, everyone was tense. As a writer, when something like this happens, it affects one's credibility. It feels bad and it is sad that someone should have asked once. I worked on my story for 10 years. The film team worked on it. Someone comes and says something like this and everyone thinks it is right. The direction of the wind changes. This is very sad."

 

Burqa City was written in 2017

Recently, the director of Burqa City also said that some scenes of his film are similar to Missing Ladies. In a conversation with IFP, the director said that he wrote his short film in 2017 and shot it in 2018. Then the film premiered in 2019. Some time ago, filmmaker Anant Mahadevan had also accused the makers of Missing Ladies of copying the movie Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol released in 1999. The writer has denied this as well.

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