The news of director Amit Masurkar’s Newton being selected as India’s official entry for the Oscars recieved a warm welcome. However, soon emerged a buzz that the story has been lifted from a well acclaimed Iranian film Secret Ballot (2001).
The social media too was busy debating on whether Newton is ‘inspired’ from Secret Ballot and some accused the makers of the film of plagiarism.
But now, the producer and director of Secret Ballot, Marco Mueller and Babak Payami, respectively, have stated that they don’t feel Newton is a rip off of their film. Mueller's statement comes after watching Newton, starring Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Raghuvir Yadav, among others .
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap shared the news on Facebook last night. He had sent the film to the Italian producer who after watching it, said, “A pretty decent film, definitely no rip off from our Secret Ballot (even if the general concept is the same) [sic].” When Kashyap asked if he could post his response on social media, Mueller replied, “please feel free as you see fit, there is not even a hint of plagiarisation [sic].”
Today, Kashyap posted a part of director Payami's interview, wherein he was asked if he would take any action against the makers of Newton if he felt the film is lifted from Secret Ballot. Payami replied, “Thematic similarities are just that and I do not believe this would limit other filmmakers from rendering the same themes in their own voice.”
He added, “I am therefore not contemplating anything other than my best wishes for Amit Masurkar.”