October has become one of the most talked about movies since its release on 13th April. Most of the chatter around the film has been positive, with critics, fans and industry insiders applauding Varun Dhawan for his performance. However, a recent incident is raising some questions about the originality of Shoojit Sircar’s story. An independent filmmaker by the name of Hemal Trivedi claims that Shoojit plagiarized the story from a 2017 Marathi release titled, Aarti – The Unknown Love Story which is directed by Sarika Mene.
Here’s what Sarika told Mid-day about the issue:
I want the audience to watch both films and be impartial in their opinion. When I watched October, (I realised that) the emotions and characters portrayed are similar. Only a few things don’t match.
The director is now seeking help from the Screenwriters Association who will be scrutinizing both films to check for similarities. Mene also told Mid-Day:
How can a writer have imagined the exact events that had occurred in my brother’s private life? I want to know where he (Sircar) got his film’s idea from – sometimes he says it’s inspired from his life, sometimes he says a newspaper article .
A source from October’s team countered saying:
The movie comes from a personal space for Shoojit whose mother was in a comatose state in 2004 and he had taken care of her.
Meanwhile, Sircar admitted to having received a notice from the Screenwriters Association and said:
We’ll respond to it officially, post which we’ll issue our official statement.
We’re quite curious to know the final outcome. What about you guys?!