Newton gets vote of confidence from Secret Ballot director, producer

Newton, becoming India’s official Oscar entry this year came with its share of controversy. The most talked among them was that the film is a copy of Iranian movie Secret Ballot. After many yay and nays, the producer of Secret Ballot himself, Marco Muller has quashed the reports of Rajkummar Rao starrer being copied from his movie. In the words of the foreign filmmaker, “There is not even a hint of plagiarisation.” All this happened when Bollywood filmmaker took the allegations of Newton being a plagiarised version of Secret Ballot seriously, and decided to send the link of Amit Masurkar directorial to the producer of Secret Ballot. After watching the movie, Muller appreciated it and even allowed Kashyap to share his feedback on social media.

The Gangs of Wasseypur director, on Monday night, shared the screenshot of his conversation with Muller and wrote, “With over enthusiastic media and our cinephiles with over active imagination .. who called “Newton” a copy of “Secret Ballot” ..here is what the producer of “Secret Ballot ” said to me after watching Newton. I requested the link of Newton from its director and send it to Marco Muller , the producer. And he wrote back “A pretty decent film, definitely no rip off from our Secret Ballot (even if the general concept is the same )” and then I asked him if I can share his response on Social Media ? He replied ,”please feel free as you see fit, there is not even a hint of plagiarisation” .. below is the screen shot.”

Earlier too, Kashyap supported Rajkummar Rao’s film and called it a much-deserved entry to Oscars from India. He took to his Twitter handle and took a dig at those who questioned Newton’s entry into Oscars. “That day when you wake up to the news that a deserving film makes a deserving box office .. Newton Shines .. super happy. “Newton” is as much a copy of “Secret Ballot” as The Avengers is of Watan Ke Rakhwale. Newton is an award winner from Berlin Fest and I can promise you those curators watch more films in a year than rest of us do in a lifetime,” wrote Kashyap.

Director of the movie Amit Masurkar also told indianexpress.com that Newton isn’t inspired by any film. He said, “It would be best if people watch both films before deciding or writing an article. We hadn’t even heard of Secret Ballot when we were writing the script. Newton is very rooted. If it was a copy, do you think Berlin, Tribeca would have programmed it?”