Indie filmmaker claims Kajol's 'Devi' similar to his 2018 film

Still from Devi

Only days after it dropped online, Kajol's short film Devi appears to have courted controversy. Independent filmmaker Shashwat Dwivedi has claimed that the Priyanka Banerjee-directed offering - which is produced by Niranjan Iyengar and Ryan Stephen - bears uncanny resemblance to his 2018 short film, Four.

"After Devi released, we got a lot of messages about how it is strikingly similar to our film, Four. Initially, I had not seen Devi, but having watched it, the similarities cannot be denied," says Dwivedi, who served as the creative director of the 2018 creation.

Directed and edited by Asian Academy of Film and Television student Abhishek Rai, Four highlights some of India's most gruesome rape cases by depicting the after-life of rape victims Nirbhaya, Bhanwari Devi and Asifa Bano where they are seen confined to a room, presumably waiting for justice even after their death. A similar premise has been employed in Devi that revolves around nine women.

Still from Four

"We want an explanation from the makers. How did they come up with the same idea? How did the story have similar characters and even, the same ending?"

Though disillusioned by the turn of events, Dwivedi has no plans of seeking legal recourse. "We don't want to go the legal way because we can't afford it financially. Also, they are big players [in the market]."

Shashwat Dwivedi

mid-day reached out to Iyengar and the production house Electric Apple. Both remained unavailable for comment.

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