Netflix India's Director of Original Films, Ruchikaa Kapoor, recently cleared the air around their upcoming film Gandhari, led by Taapsee Pannu. Writer Kalyan Bandi has alleged that the Netflix production bears similarities to a story he pitched in 2019. The film has consequently landed in copyright trouble ahead of its release.
At the trailer launch yesterday, Ruchikaa Kapoor said, "We take artistic attribution very seriously. We are a service that receives multiple pitches, and the pitch in question is very different from Kanika Dhillon and Taapsee Pannu's Gandhari. I won't make any other assumptions. Please watch the film. You have watched the trailer."
She added, "We are always committed to the originality of our storytellers, whether someone has written five or six films or if it is their first film. At Netflix, we are very clear on that."
The Controversy
Writer Kalyan Bandi says he has sent a legal notice to Netflix India content head Monika Shergill.
In an interview with Mid-Day, Kalyan Bandi shared that he had initially reached out to Shergill through LinkedIn to discuss the story he had written. “She used to work with another streaming platform at the time. She asked me to send the story on her email ID, and I did that. In May, she told me that it wouldn't work for them and I was free to pitch it elsewhere,” the writer said.
Bandi claimed that he had been pitching Gandhari to various industry players before a studio agreed to develop his story as a theatrical project in late 2023. He said he was taken by surprise in September 2024 when Netflix India announced its own Gandhari with Kanika Dhillon credited as the writer.
"When I saw the title announcement, I reached out to Monika on LinkedIn again because my story is also of a mother and the disappearance of young girls, similar to Taapsee's film. I didn't get any response," he said.
By December 2024, his producers also backed out of the project. "As I had directly communicated with Monika, SWA said I could take the legal route. I sent her a legal notice last September for copyright infringement,” Bandi shared.
Kanika Dhillon's production banner, Kathha Pictures, has strongly rejected the plagiarism allegations. The production house clarified that Gandhari was developed independently, with both its story and screenplay written by Dhillon.
The official statement said, "Our attention has been drawn to allegations circulating on social media and in certain publications to the effect that our forthcoming film Gandhari copies another person's concept and uses that person's title. These allegations are false, and we deny them unequivocally. Gandhari is an original work, written and produced by Ms. Kanika Dhillon and developed by Kathha Pictures. Its story and screenplay are Ms Dhillon's own work."
The makers also urged the media and audiences to refrain from presenting the allegations as proven claims.
Gandhari is scheduled to release on Netflix on September 3.
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