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Subhash K Jha (DNA; September 20, 2014)

Enlarge ImageMany years ago, director Dev Benegal made Split Wide Open with Rahul Bose, a film about water scarcity in Mumbai. When Shekhar Kapur announced Paani for the first time 10 years ago, Benegal cried foul regarding his film’s subject being suspiciously similar to what Shekhar proposed.

Now when Shekhar has begun prepping for Paani, another filmmaker has crept up with a similar subject. National award winning director Nila Madhab Panda’s Kaun Kitne Paani Mein seems to share uncanny resemblance to Shekhar’s Paani. Madhab’s film features Kunal Kapoor in the lead whereas Shekhar’s film has Sushant Singh Rajput as the protagonist.

While Kaun Kitne Paani Mein is set in two parts on a village in Odisha named Upri and Bairi where water is a constant source of friction, Paani is set in a futuristic city divided into two parts — the Upper Level and Lower Level — warring over water. Panda plays down the similarities, “I’ve heard Paani is an urban film on water scarcity and also a scientific and futuristic film, whereas mine is a rural film set in present times on water scarcity... and even if there are similarities, I say, the more the better. Water scarcity is a growing epidemic across the world. We need many more films on the theme.”