Producer Subhash Kale has accused the makers of Captain India of plagiarism, Bollywood Hungama has reported. According to Kale, the plot of Captain India is similar to that of their proposed project, Operation Yemen. The former will be directed by Hansal Mehta while the latter will be directed by Sanjay Sankla.
Operation Yemen is based on Operation Raahat, led by General V K Singh in 2015 to evacuate Indians and foreign nationals from the war torn country during the Yemeni crisis.
Subhash Kale told Bollywood Hungama, “We have been working since 2016 on this project. The cousin of our director Sanjay Sankla was the pilot on this mission. Sanjay Sankla has been a reputed editor and has worked on nearly 95 films. He researched extensively and when he narrated the idea to me, I said that we should work on it as it’s an interesting subject. We took 9 months to pen the script. We even got Mission Mangal (2019) writer Nidhi Singh Dharma on board. Our pre-production was nearly done. I wonder where the idea got leaked from. This episode is in the public domain but we were the first ones to register at the Screenwriters Association (SWA).”
He further claimed, “Captain India waalon ne toh script likhna shuru bhi nahi kiya. They had dates of Kartik Aaryan. The idea has not leaked from our side because we have signed a confidentiality agreement with everyone associated.”
The makers of Captain India had recently signed Kartik Aaryan as the lead in the movie. When asked about the fact that the press release of the movie does not mention that it is based on Operation Raahat, Subhash Kale responded, “Yes but the city of Sana’a, the capital of Yemen is visible on their poster, just like how it’s depicted in our poster as well. And that city’s architecture and landscape are such that it doesn’t match with any other city in the world. Also, the poster shows carpet-bombing happening over the city, an aeroplane going over Sana’a and the title Captain India are clear giveaways that their film is based on the same incident.”
According to Kale, the IMPAA (Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association) has said that there will be a stay on the movie. He has also said that the Screenwriters Association said that they will take action after the plot of the movie is revealed. Kale expressed his wish to get a stay on the movie.
“Even if the scripts of both films are different, the storyline would be the same and hence both films would also be similar. Do same picture toh nahi ban sakti. It’ll then become a repeat of Scam 1992 (2020) and The Big Bull (2021) episode,” Subhash Kale said.
He further revealed that they have approached Akshay Kumar for the movie and Paresh Rawal has consented to be part of it as well. Kale says that they will begin shooting Operation Yemen from November or December this year while the Captain India is scheduled for a shoot in 2022.