Udta Punjab starring Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Diljeet Dosanjh, was released in June this year after much controversy over censorship issues. Months later, it has found itself embroiled in a new controversy as allegations have surfaced that the script may have been plagiarised from British author Ben Elton’s 2002 novel High Society which revolves around the thriving drug scene in Britain.
The book shares similar characters with the film including Tommy Hanson, a drug addicted rock star which is similar to Shahid Kapoor's Tommy Singh. Another character Jessie in the book is a young girl and an accomplished gymnast, who runs away from home and is forced into drug use and prostitution, similar to Alia Bhatt's character of a Bihari migrant who used to be an ace hockey player. Yet another character in the story of a cop who wants to bring down the drug trade is strikingly similar to Diljeet Dosanjh's cop portrayal.
But the similarities do not end there as plenty of scenes also seem to similar. In the book Tommy is mugged by fans outside a pub. Injured and intoxicated he meets Jesse, who had escaped from the brothel where she had been drugged and kept confined. They sit down and exchange stories before Jesse's captors show up, knock out Tommy and take her back, When Tommy becomes conscious again he has but one resolve, to find and save Jesse. This meeting is quite similar to how Shahid Kapoor's Tommy meets Alia Bhatt's Mary Jane and then makes it his mission in life to save her. Also common to both movie and film is Tommy's self obsession. While Tommy Hanson has a posse of people who wear neck pieces with the words Tommy's crew on them, Tommy Singh is surrounded by a team that wears tshirts with Gabru ka crew imprinted on them. Both Tommy's also cannot fathom how anyone (Jesse/Mary Jane) cannot have known who they are.
Another resemblance has been found when Tommy Hanson steps into a tattoo parlour, asks them to shave his head and ink the word twat on his scalp. Shahid's character on the other hand also gets the word fuddo inked on his scalp. The meaning of both the words is also similar.
The ending of both the movie and book also could not be more similar. In the book when Tommy meets Jesse, she shares with him her dream of going off to a place where there is plenty of sunshine and a beach, where she can find peace again. The book ends with Tommy finding her at the beach, just as she dreamt of it. In the film too Mary Jane has a dream of going off to Goa where she can sit and enjoy the sunshine and gaze out towards the sea, a dream which she shares with Tommy when they meet and exchange stories. The closing scenes of the movie show Tommy finally finding Mary Jane on the beach.
However the meaning through both art works are different. While through the book, the writer wants to find a way to legalise all drugs, Udta Punjab calls for the need for rehabilitation.
Udta Punjab scriptwriter Sudip Sharma has denied the allegations, although he has admitted to having read High Society a long time ago, adding that he doesn't remember much of it.
While director Abhishek Chaubey has not responded to these allegations as yet, Kashyap had this to say “I know for a fact that my director and writer went and spent a lot of time in Punjab researching the film, and have seen the research. If they were in any which way inspired by the book, which only they know, they have done a damn good job in the writing of the script. Because the film that I read and I saw, seemed very very rooted in the land.”
