Rajkummar Rao starrer ‘Newton’ was recently announced as India’s official entry to the Oscar Awards this year. Soon after the announcement, there were rumours that the film was "inspired" by the 2001 Iranian film 'Secret Ballot'. In a turn of events, these claims were rubbished by the producer of the Iranian film, Marco Mueller. Marco stated that he felt that there was not even a hint of plagiarisation in 'Newton'.
On Monday night, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap shared Marco's opinion in a Facebook post, after he watched 'Newton'. "A pretty decent film, definitely no rip off from our Secret Ballot (even if the general concept is the same)" and then I asked him if I can share his response on social media? He replied,"Please feel free as you see fit, there is not even a hint of plagiarisation," wrote Kashyap, who spoke in defence of the film on Sunday.
Anurag even posted a tweet in defence of the film.
Standing up for the film's genuinity, the filmmaker stated, "'Newton' is an award winner from Berlin fest and I can promise you those curators watch more films in a year than rest of us do in a lifetime."
Newton director Amit.V. Masurkar had also spoken about the controversy, saying, "The story was born from my heart. I had no idea about 'Secret Ballot'."
(Also read: Amit Masurkar: If ‘Newton’ was a copy would it be selected for the Oscars?)Well, it looks like people should be more careful about pointing fingers. Stay tuned for more updates.