Neeraj Pandey's short film Laddoo in plagiarism row; Ajay Dhama sends legal notice to filmmaker

Neeraj Pandey has become embroiled in a plagiarism row as Ajay Dhama has alleged that the newly released short film Laddoo is a copy of his 2016 film In The Name of God. According to Mumbai Mirror , Dhama has sent a legal notice to Pandey, who has presented the short, starring Kumud Mishra, Manasi Parekh and Kabir Sajid.

Dhama told the publication, “Someone sent me a link of _Laddoo’_s trailer on Wednesday and after seeing the entire short, I was shocked because it’s a direct lift from my film’s trailer which I uploaded online in 2016,” adding that even the names of the child protagonist for both Laddoo and Dhama’s film are the same — Rahul.

Producer of Laddoo, Shital Bhatia, denied having any knowledge of Ajay’s film and said that they have reached out to Dhama in order to show them his script and film. Shital further said that they try to bolster and encourage first-time filmmakers.

Laddoo has been written and directed by Sameer and Kishor Sadhwani, and shows a boy who sets out to feed a pandit on his grandfather’s death anniversary, but gets confused and then feeds a maulvi.

In The Name of God was made in a bid to make a commentary on communal divide, Dhama said, and the filmmaker is in no hurry to release it.