‘Ahalya’: Sujoy Ghosh Reacts to Allegations of Plagiarism

Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh reacts to allegations that his short film ‘Ahalya’ has been inspired from Dahl and Satyajit Ray

A still from his short film Ahalya (L) and filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh (R) 

Sujoy Ghosh’s short film Ahalya was released online on July 20, the film received rave reviews and has currently over 18 lakh views in just 4 days! Several Bollywood stars including Amitabh Bachchan watched the film and gave it a thumbs up.

However, soon enough allegations of plagiarism began to be leveled against the filmmaker for having borrowed the basic concept of the film without due acknowledgement. A few people on Twitter accused Ghosh of being ‘inspired’ by various sources including Roald Dahl, Satyajit Ray and a Spanish animated short film amongst others.

Speaking to The Quint, Sujoy Ghosh dismissed these accusations and said:

I have been accused of being inspired from some 20 different sources and each has accused me with equal conviction! So now I have to decide which one to go with. But jokes aside, I guess there are always some similarities you can find in anything creative and that’s the greatest thing about art. Somewhere you identify... but that doesn’t mean that every love story where a boy meets girl is Romeo and Juliet.
– Sujoy Ghosh, Filmmaker

Take a closer look at some charges made online against the filmmaker:

The Landlady by Roald Dahl

The Landlady, by Roald Dahl is about a young man who puts up in a guest house whose landlady, offers him tea and mentions her passion for taxidermy. The new guest also notices that two guests mentioned in the visitor’s register are now missing according to a newspaper report. The story ends with the young boy having drunk the tea (which is poisoned), implying he will die and be stuffed to be added to the landlady’s collection.

Alma (Animated Short Film)

Alma, a Spanish animated film, has the similar concept of a little girl named Alma who gets attracted to a doll in an empty toy store that looks identical to her. In an attempt to take out the doll, Alma ends up being imprisoned within the doll herself and left on top of a shelf in the eerie toy store.

Satyajit Ray’s Short Story

Also similar is Satyajit Ray’s short story Professor Shonku O Aschorjo Putul (Professor Shonku and the Strange Doll). Professor Shonku goes to Sweden to receive an honorary doctorate degree. There he meets a man named Gregor Lindquist who informs him that he is a doll maker and invites Shonku to see his creations. Professor Shonku finds that Gregor’s dolls are amazingly lifelike and is impressed with his talent. It is only towards the end that the professor realizes that these are actual humans transformed into dolls.

Apart from these three sources, Sujoy has also been accused of being inspired by films like Child’s Play and Interstellar too!

The filmmaker has now also reacted on Twitter to these charges: