After churning out copies of multiple Pakistani songs and successfully making million bucks from it, Bollywood has now eyes on the premises of our hit movies. The trailer of Akshay Kumar’s upcoming film Raksha Bandhan, that was unveiled on Tuesday, appears to be heavily inspired by the premise of Nabeel Qureshi and Fizza Ali Meerza’s much-loved film Load Wedding.
Nabeel Qureshi is a Pakistani filmmaker who has been hearing that his films look like Indian movies since his first film. Many compared Na Maloom Afraad with Delhi Belly and the most recent one, Khel Khel Mein to Rang De Basanti. Oddly enough, there weren’t any parallels to draw except that the genre were somewhat similar. However, now the tables have turned. This is the second time that a Bollywood film’s trailer has sparked a conversation that it looks very identical to the premise of a Nabeel Qureshi film.
Earlier, it was Shahid Kapoor-Shraddha Kapoor starrer Batti Gul Meter Chalu that reminded a lot of people of a court room scene in Actor in Law where Fahad Mustafa, acting as a lawyer, highlighted the issue of load shedding/ electricity crisis. However, it was a film by T-Series, well known to copy Pakistani songs without any hint of appreciation for the original work.
This time, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan is a film by Aanand L Rai who has credible films like Tanu Weds Manu, Raanjhanaa, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Tumbbad, Haseen Dillruba amongst others to his credit.
Raksha Bandhan, scheduled to release in August, is about a man who has four sisters and he is under immense pressure to marry them before tying the knot himself. He runs a shops and is unable to arrange hefty dowry for his sisters. Hence, the love of his life, played by Bhumi Pednekar, blames him for not taking a stand. Her father blames the guy for only remembering the promise he made to his late mother. Aanand L Rai’s film blends the evils of dowry with comedy and emotional drama. But doesn’t this sound too familiar?
Load Wedding, released in August 2018, is also a social comedy about the stigmas attached to weddings, the pressure on unmarried or widowed women in our society and the demands of dowry. It mixes it with just the right blend of light-hearted comedy, ironic situations, and intense emotions.
Raja (Fahad Mustafa), who runs a shop, struggles to find a suitor for his older sister Baby baji (Faiza Hasan). He musters up the courage to profess his feelings for his childhood love, Meeru (Mehwish Hayat), but the sudden demise of his father leaves him with bigger responsibilities. Raja’s mother asks him to fill his father’s shoes and find a husband for his sister.
Read: Haute Review: ‘Load Wedding’ entertains while delivering an important social message
Nabeel played on his strengths and added many indigenous Pakistani elements to the film, like a popular TV game show where you can win dowry items. And we expect the Bollywood director to do the same and cash in on Akshay’s impeccable comic timings or far more twisted dowry arrangements that are very common in India.
From its release muhurta [auspicious time] to the nuances and details of the premise, it seems that the team behind Raksha Bandhan loved Load Wedding. They tweaked the story here and there and knitted a new film based on it. It is written by Himanshu Sharma and Kanika Dhillon, and interestingly one of the producers is Cape of Good Films which is Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna’s production house.
Well, even as a form of flattery, it is not very convincing from a giant like Bollywood to not give credit where it is due. Nonetheless, it is amazing to see us gain the upper hand for a change.
Watch the trailer of Raksha Bandhan to see the resemblance yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvMttgOhpbk
