Amit Masurkar’s “Newton” featuring Rajkumar Rao is in limelight for all the right reasons. The flick has been selected as the official entry of India for Oscars. However, the movie is alleged to have taken inspiration from “Secret Ballot”, an Iranian flick.
Both the movies have some things in common, such as the protagonist in both the films is honest and is sent to a remote village. The main lead has the responsibility of making sure that the elections in the concerned area run smoothly. Not only this, challenges from officials and unfavorable conditions also contribute to the similarity.
I never watched “Secret Ballot” before making “Newton”: Director
Amit Masurkar who has directed “Newton” says this while defending the flick,
“The film has travelled 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.”
“Newton” is an original story:
Masurkar depicted similarities in all the gangster movies and strengthens his point that his film is not inspired by “Secret Ballot”. In his words,
“In gangster films, there is always someone’s death in 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.’’
How it made to Oscars if it’s not original?
Film Federation of India (FFI) chose the movie as India’s entry for Oscars and when CV Reddy, FFI President, was asked about the debate, he said,
“How can I tell you anything as I have not watched both the films?”
A member of FFI is of the opinion that numerous movies by stalwarts have sought inspiration from other flicks and hence, it’s not a big issue. According to the guidelines of FFI, the release date of the movie should be before 30th September, 2017. What’s more, there should be English subtitles in the movie and a draft of 50,000 need to be submitted.
As per the member,
“Anyone who meets these criteria can submit their movie. There are no rules about the subject or originality of the film.”
What is your take over the matter? Let us know your views!
