Kajol's short film Devi, written and directed by Priyanka Banerjee, accused of plagiarism

Recently, a short film titled Devi, starring Kajol, Neha Dhupia, and Shruti Haasan among others, was released on YouTube. Written and directed by Priyanka Banerjee, it depicts how nine women belonging to different strata of society are brought together by circumstance and end up forming a sisterhood after they share their stories of abuse. However, the makers have been accused of plagiarising the story from a student film Four.

The short has been written, directed and edited by Abhishek Rai, a student of Asian Academy of Film and Television, Noida. The concept and ending of both Devi and Four are identical.

Four revolves around real-life cases of rape and sexual abuse, and includes instances of the victim of the 2012 gang rape case, Bhanwari Devi, and the victim of the Kathua rape-murder case. Devi features an ensemble cast of women from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

Rai took to Facebook and shared his grievance: "Of course our film was a student film, with very little production design, bad audio and stuff, but still it's a child of our own imagination and it's ruthless how anyone can just pick up a piece of thought and claim it to be theirs." He further added that Four is an intellectual property of the college. He also called out for support from the students and faculty of the college so that collective action can be taken against the makers of Devi.

Here is Rai's statement

Firstpost reached out to the producer of Devi, Niranjan Iyengar, but did not receive a response. This story will be updated as more details come in.

Devi has received immense positive response and has clocked in over 3 million views since its release this week. In an interview with Press Trust of India, Kajol said, "Devi is the kind of statement you want to make to men and women. It's meant for people to take notice and start talking. The conversation has been going on but we always look at it with a tired acceptance of what's happening. It takes something big, like a Nirbhaya, for us to stand up as a country."

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