Is Raabta a copy of SS Rajamouli’s 2009 Telugu blockbuster Magadheera? The question refuses to leave Raabta’s director and producer, Dinesh Vijan, and co-producer T-Series. The filmmakers have denied any similarities in a reply to an injunction filed by Allu Arvind, Magadheera’s producer, at the city civil court in Hyderabad. Arvind wants the court to stop the movie’s scheduled release on June 9.

Arvind’s petition, filed on May 25, alleges that Raabta is a copy of Magadheera and therefore violates copyright. The matter has been posted for a hearing on June 1.

Geetha Art's Legal Notice.

Vijan and T-Series head Bhushan Kumar issued a statement in which they rejected the accusation. “Each film interprets and presents an idea in its own unique way, each such expression being a separate copyright in its own right,” the statement read. “We have done the same and put together an original film that presents our vision of a time-less love story.”

Raabta, like Magadheera, is a love story based on reincarnation. The movie stars Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon as lovers separated in a previous birth and reunited in the present one. The villain (Jim Sarbh) hunts down the lovers across time zones. The Telugu film starred Ram Charan and Kajal Aggarwal.

The writers of Raabta, Garima and Siddharth, had told Scroll.in in an interview that Raabta was an original story, and that it was wrong to compare films based on trailers.

The controversy follows the exit of music composer Pritam from the production. The hit-maker had refused to remix a song that he hadn’t composed for T-Series, and asked that his name be taken off the credits.

Play
Magadheera (2009).
Play
Rabata (2017).