Foolish and silly: R Balki on ‘Padman’ plagiarism claims

‘Padman’ director R Balki has brushed off allegations of plagiarism against his recently-released film, calling the claims “silly” and “foolish”. Writer Ripu Daman Jaiswal has accused the makers of the Akshay Kumar-Radhika Apte starrer of copying 11 scenes from a script that he had written.

“That’s so foolish. After every film, some people foolishly make these claims,” Balki told PTI, dismissing the allegations. The film is a fictionalised account of Tamil Nadu-based Arunachalam Muruganantham, who created affordable sanitary napkins for the women of his village. “My film is an official biography of Muruganantham. Is he accusing Muruganantham of leading a life that has been copied from his writing? That’s so silly,” Balki said.

Jaiswal also alleged that a dialogue, narrated by megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the film, has been taken from his script that he had sent to Ryan Stephan, creative head of Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. “I remember I was in the library when I wrote this dialogue and was truly elated. Honestly, I surprised myself that day. Tell me, how on earth can you steal someone’s dialogue? This is unfair,” he had tweeted.

The writer also said that he has filed an FIR against Akshay and the filmmakers. “R Balki! I tried everything! I even filed a police complaint at Cuffe Parade station on 23rd of Jan against everyone. Tell me, what more can I do? S.I. told me I have a good case and they will look into the matter and will call me after investigation. Am still waiting for that call (sic)," Daman had tweeted.