Kajol’s short film Devi seems to have courted controversy just days after it dropped online. Independent filmmaker Shashwat Dwivedi stated that the Priyanka Banerjee directed a short film which is directed by Niranjan Iyengar and Ryan Stephen bears an odd resemblance to his 2018 short, Four.
Dwivedi said in a statement, “After Devi released, we got a lot of messages about how it is strikingly similar to our film, Four. Initially, I had not seen Devi, but having watched it, the similarities cannot be denied.”
Directed and edited by the Asian Academy of Film and Television student Abhishek Rai’s Four highlights some of India’s most horrific rape cases by portraying the afterlife of the rape victims Nirbhaya, Bhanwari Devi and Asifa Bano where they are seen confined to a room presumably awaiting justice even after their death. A similar concept that revolves around nine women are employed in Devi.
Dwivedi further added, “We want an explanation from the makers. How did they come up with the same idea? How did the story have similar characters and even, the same ending?”
While being disenchanted with the turn of events, Dwivedi has no intention to pursue legal recourse. “We don’t want to go the legal way because we can’t afford it financially. Also, they are big players [in the market]”, Dwivedi concluded.