‘Hichki’ Director Rubbishes Writer’s Plagiarism Accusation

The Rani Mukerji film is already courting controversy.

Is the story of Rani Mukerji’s Hichki plagiarised? 

(Photo courtesy: YRF)

After accusations and counter accusations over who wrote the script of the Kangana Ranaut-starrer Simran, it’s now Hichki’s turn. Writer Nishant Kaushik has taken to Twitter to share how he was given a one-liner brief by the film’s director Siddharth Malhotra two-and-a-half years back and he submitted a story that’s startlingly familiar to what the Rani Mukerji’s comeback film looks like.

Kaushik claims he received no response from Malhotra despite trying to get in touch with him several times.

“More than 2.5 years later, I watch the #Hichki trailer and notice a rather similar storyline, a protagonist with the same speech disorder I had described, and other nuances that I MAY NOT own all by myself, but are undoubtedly similar to the ones I portrayed,”

Nishant Kaushik on Twitter

Check out his tweets here:

Kaushik, angry about his work not being acknowledged at all, added that all his communication with Malhotra have been saved, but he is skeptical about what it can achieve.

Simran writer Apurva Asrani also commented on the thread saying that the industry treats writers appallingly.

He also wrote that Kaushik could now expect a smear campaign, but later deleted the tweet.

Apurva Asrani’s deleted tweet.

Director Siddharth P Malhotra has however rubbished the claims. According to Scroll, he had approached several writers and since the makers did not like Kaushik’s take on the material, they informed Exceed Entertainment, the company through which Kaushik was contacted, about the decision.

“I had acquired the rights to make <em>Front of the Class</em> as a Hindi motion picture in 2013. Nishant Kaushik’s claims are baseless. He was contacted through Exceed Entertainment and I haven’t even met him once. We were looking for writers who could come up with a take on the Front of the Class. We had approached several writers including Nishant. He was given a brief for the film and the story and slant he came up with, was not what we were looking for. So, we did not proceed with him and Exceed was informed about my decision immediately. This was, 2015. Several prominent writers like Amole Gupte, Abbas Tyrewala have worked on the story of <em>Hichki</em> and we have obtained NOC’s from them and I thank each one of them for being the creative contributors of <em>Hichki</em>. We have credited all the writers who have worked in our film. So, it is ridiculous that we will not give credit to anyone in particular who has worked hard and contributed for <em>Hichki</em>.”

Siddharth P Malhotra, Director, <i>Hichki</i>

Where would this end, we wonder.