Producer Of Iranian Movie ‘Secret Ballot’ Reacts To The Plagiarism Issue Of India’s Oscar-Nominated ‘Newton’ Movie
Actor Raj Kumar Rao starring, Amit Masurkar’s directorial ‘Newton’ has hit the theaters on 22nd September, started off with no sound, the movie has come to limelight after authorities declared it as 2017’s Oscar-nominated movie from India.
‘Newton’ has already earned the admiration and affections of the multiplexes crowd. With the announcement of the nomination, the movie now raised the bars of Indian cinema yet again. People started rushing to theaters to set their eyes on the most realistic Election drama movie that is set up in the forest areas of Chattisgarh.
This Raj Kumar Rao’s another best of till now movies have observed a considerable rise in terms of box office, thanks to the Film Federation of India (FFI), for genuinely valuing the spellbound drama.
People on social media platforms went praising the actor for choosing such eccentric scripts, and netizens even showered the director Amit Masurkar for attempting such phenomenal movie. Amidst all these certain allegations surfaced the Internet, it is claimed that the movie is inspired from a 2002’s Iranian movie ‘Secret Ballot’, as both the storylines appeared to be same, netizens went questioning the authenticity in script and plot.
In a bid to clear the air, the director has finally opened up on the issue, he made certain statements on the plagiarism issues, said that he is not even aware of the existence of the Iranian movie. Turned down the criticism, while the FFI president gave his opinion on the same. The latter said that that he hasn’t seen both the films
Amit Masurkar, the director has defended the comments, said:
“The film has traveled to all international film festivals and has been awarded if it were a copy do you think this would have happened? All these allegations have begun when it landed in India. I don’t even know about the film or the story of Secret Ballot. I have just watched a little bit of it after people starting talking about the similarities in the two films.”
Strengthening his argument, he roped in the general ideas of the gangster movies and others, added, “In gangster films, there is always someone’s death in the family that has led to the story of the gangster and there are honest officers everywhere. As for my film, it is an original story and is rooted in Chattisgarh. I didn’t even know that there was a film like Secret Ballot when we worked on our film.”
Coming back to the storylines, they both are built on same bases, the protagonist is an Election officer, who is dedicated, modest and punctual and is very stubborn in terms of duty. Both go to the rural areas where there is chaos, then does the job.
Newton started off with a mere Rs 1 crore opening day collections, it tripled by Sunday, making it altogether Rs 2.64 crores.
Amidst all this chaos, one of the producers of Iranian flick- Secret Ballot has reacted, he in a mail wrote, “[I] Have never met with Amit [V. Masurkar]. And of course, I never did read any treatment or script of Newton. (The project was not part of the Work In Progress lab). [I] Have also not seen the film. But several filmmaker friends liked it a lot, so am sure Amit is a very decent director. And I wish the film the best of success in its Academy Awards career.”
That simply is a nice gesture from the foreign director. India’s Oscar connect with Mr. Mueller has a history to it. He has produced and co-produced 14 features including Danis Tanovic’s No Man’s Land that beat Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan in the Oscar race in 2002.