‘Kiran Rao Shamelessly Copied Burqa City’: Netizens Slam Aamir Khan’s Ex-Wife; Find Similarities Between Laapataa Ladies & An Arabic Film

Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies starring Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, Sparsh Shrivastava, Chhaya Kadam, and Ravi Kishan is regarded as one of the best films of 2024. A few days ago, at IIFA 2025, it won multiple awards, including Best Story (Original), Best Film, and Best Director. However, netizens have found an Arabic short film titled Burqa City which has a similar storyline and scenes. They are slamming Kiran Rao for copying the Arabic film.

A netizen posted on X, “This is how Kiran Rao, ex-wife of Aamir Khan, turned everything bad about Burqa into everything wrong with Ghunghat. Kiran Rao shamelessly copied Burqa City (2019) and made Laapataa Ladies (2023). Disappointingly, many right minded people fell for this.”

Another X user wrote, “Don't expect much from Bollywood. Bollywood runs on copying.” One more netizen explained the similarities and wrote, “Kiran Rao made Lapata Ladies, with the same theme, replacing burqas with ghoonghats. The film carried the same message about patriarchy, societal norms, and women's identity. Even the Ravi Kishan police station scene seems heavily inspired.” Check out the posts below…

Laapataa Ladies Unofficial Remake Of Ghoonghat Ke Pat Khol?

Last year, when Laapataa Ladies was released, a lot of people had claimed that it is an unofficial remake of a short film titled Ghoonghat Ke Pat Khol. Even the director of the short film, Anant Mahadevan, in an interview, had stated that he did find similarities between two films.

During that time in an interview, Kiran had stated that she had not seen Mahadevan’s film neither heard about it. However, now, let’s see if Kiran will react to netizens’ claims of her film being copied from an Arabic movie.

Laapataa Ladies did reasonably well at the box office. The film had collected Rs. 20.58 crore, and it was India's official entry to the Oscars. However, it didn't make it to the nominations.