Kiran Rao's 'Laapataa Ladies' copied from Arabic film 'Burqa City'? All you need to know

Kiran Rao's 'Laapataa Ladies' received a lot of appreciation and love from critics and audiences alike. The film truly impressed everyone with its captivating plot, impressive storyline and the actors played their part amazingly well. In fact, the film went on to become  India's official entry to the Oscars 2025. It was right then that the film started to see itself embroiled in a variety of controversies. While many debated if the film was worthy enough to be India's official entry to the Oscars, there were even more serious allegations that the makers of the film faced, such as plagiarism. 

It was only recently that netizens started to point out the similarities between 'Laapataa Ladies' and an Arabic film called 'Burqa City'. Internet users claim that the storylines of both the films are oddly similar. In fact, a video of the 2019 film 'Burqa City' directed by Fabrice Bracq is doing rounds on the internet and that was the major tipping point for this controversy to begin. 

The storyline of Bracq's 'Burqa City' revolves around a newlywed man in the Middle East who finds himself in trouble when he realises that his wife has been swapped with another woman who was wearing a similar burqa and then he embarks on a search to find his real wife. 

An X (formerly known as Twitter) user while pointing out the similarities between the two films wrote, "In 2019, a short film that titled "Burqa City" was released. The movie was set in Middle East. Women are forced to wear Burqas. A young man marries a woman in Burqa and when he came home, he discovered that he has brought home the wrong woman. In 2023, Kiran Rao's movie titled "Laapata Ladies" was released." 

The user further added, "The only thing where it differs is that Burqa was replaced with Ghoonghat.... otherwise the plot is same. Kiran Rao should tell us what was her problem with Burqa....why she couldn't make this movie with Burqa as the main theme instead of Ghoonghat?"

The team of Laapataa Ladies including Kiran Rao herself has not yet made a comment on the controversy surrounding the film.

'Laapataa Ladies' featured Pratibha Ranta, Nitanshi Goel, Sparsh Shrivastav, Ravi Kishan, Chhaya Kadam in pivotal roles. The film was produced by Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, and Jyoti Deshpande under the banner of Aamir Khan Productions.