Director Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies (2024), which was India’s official entry to the Oscars 2025, has found itself at the centre of a plagiarism controversy yet again. After being accused of copying the 1999 film, Ghoonghat Ke Pat Khol, several social media users are now pointing out striking similarities between Laapataa Ladies and a 2019 Arabic film called Burqa City, after the latter’s video clips went viral recently.

Burqa City, a 19-minute satirical short film, tells the story of a newlywed man who frantically searches for his wife after she is mistakenly swapped with another woman wearing an identical burqa. The film delivers a critique of patriarchal societies and the erasure of women’s identities. Its similarity with the plot of Laapataa Ladies has not gone unnoticed by social media users.

One wrote on X, “Kiran Rao’s Lapata Ladies, India’s official entry to the Oscars and projected as an original work, actually seems heavily inspired by a 2019 short film titled Burqa City.... Kiran Rao made Lapata Ladies, with the same theme, replacing burqas with ghoonghats (sic).”

Another user wrote, “There is nothing Original about Bollywood anymore (sic).” A post read: “This is embarrassing....the creators were enjoying the success as if they had made something original (sic).” Kiran is yet to respond to the controversy.