Upala KBR (DNA; November 11, 2016)

Toilet - Ek Prem Katha, editor Shree Narayan Singh’s directorial debut, starring Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar, went on floors last Sunday. The film, which will have Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swacch Bharat Abhiyan as a major part of its story, is similar to director Krishnadev Yagnik’s tentatively titled Gujarati film Narayandas Pay And Use.

Similar love stories
Both films revolve around the pay-and-use toilet scheme and the importance of stopping open defecation in cities and towns. Both the films are love stories where the man who runs the P&U toilet falls in love with a girl living in the slums, who comes to use the toilet and eventually how they end up getting married. Both films also talk about the wave of social change sweeping across India. There’s one difference — Akshay’s character has been changed to a slightly older man than the young boy in Narayandas Pay And Use. The picture which Akshay tweeted last Sunday was post his marriage to Bhumi during the climax.

‘Too big for me’
Do the plots sound similar? Yagnik certainly thinks so. He says, “I had heard while I was making Days Of Taafree that Akshay Kumar was doing a film with the same concept and the characters were similar, too. But I can’t fight the people who are making that film. They are too big for me. And to be fair, I have never narrated the story to any of the people connected to Toilet - Ek Prem Katha. Also, maybe just the concept is the same — the story is different. It’s a director’s vision and it all depends how he spins his story.”

‘Chalta hai’
Yagnik tells us that he had written the script of NPAU five years ago. “I had written it during my struggling days as a director five years ago and met many producers to narrate the concept. I had wanted to make NPAU, but then I got a break with Taafree and I started that. I heard another film with a similar story was being made, but chalta hai... Aisa hota hai kabhi kabhi... I can’t blame them. Also, my film will be in Gujarati meant for different audiences.”

A black comedy
Yagnik’s film rolls from January next year in Ahmedabad. Yagnik adds, “It is a love story where the boy Trilok, who collects the money from the people using the pay-and-use toilet, falls in love with a jhopdi mein rehni wali ladki, who cleans and sweeps houses, and the conflicts revolving around their love story. It’s a black comedy where eventually they get married.”