Ayushmann unfazed

The actor is not worried about similarities between Bala and Ujda Chaman, says anybody can come up with the idea

Ayushmann Khurrana says he is not worried with the plot similarities between his film Bala and Ujda Chaman, both stories of men dealing with premature balding. Directed by Amar Kaushik, Bala stars Ayushmann as a young bald man while Ujda Chaman, a remake of the 2017 Kannada movie Ondu Motteya Kathe, features Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety star Sunny Singh in a similar role. The first look poster of Ujda Chaman had said “takle ki pehli aur original film” (first and original film of a bald man).

Ayushmann said Bala aims to celebrate complexes and is about self love. “The word takla is quite derogatory. It’s not celebrating self love. It isn’t about just receding hair or baldness. It’s about loving and discovering yourself more than anything else. We shot our film first, announced our film first. There’s just one line which is similar otherwise it’s a different film. I’ve seen the South film, after we completed the shoot. Once you see the film you’ll realise (the difference),” Ayushmann said.

When asked is he bothered that both the films are releasing almost back-toback, the actor said, “It happened with Bhagat Singh also. I’m really confident about our film, it’s a beautiful film and one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. Anybody can come up with the same idea.”

Earlier this year, a writer had claimed that Bala was based on a script he had narrated to Ayushmann, alleging that he was not given any credit for his story. Aysuhmann, however, said that out of all the scripts on the story, he went with the best team.

“I got the same idea by six different people. I’ll just go with the person who is more credible. There was a film called Hair is Falling in 2011 and there were a lot of films which were made on receding hairline but just that they weren’t successful. It’s my decision to go with the best director, best producer and choose the best script on the subject. As simple as that,” he added. Ayushmann said with Bala he approached baldness with empathy. “I’ve ventured into farfetched territories like sperm donation and erectile dysfunction, this was the most common one... It’s just the empathy I thought about. I’ve met both kinds of people, those who are bothered by it, those who don’t care about it. The idea is to have the side more prominent which says that you shouldn’t be bothered about it.

That’s also the message of our film,” he added.