After being launched in theatres three months in the past, Seema Pahwa’s Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi not too long ago dropped on Netflix and is sustaining its prime 10 spot as one of many platform’s most-watched titles over the previous weeks. The movie’s plot revolves across the members of the family of a deceased patriarch as they reunite to conduct his final rites. Before the discharge of Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi on Netflix, the platform had already launched Umesh Bist’s Pagglait, which additionally offers with a plot much like Seema’s movie. Hence, comparisons between the 2 movies had been made.
In a tête-à-tête with Film Companion, Seema shared, “We made Ram Prasad Ki Tehrvi in 2018 and launched it earlier than at MAMI and different movie festivals. Pagglait got here after that and had some similarities, which was painful to see. The location it was shot at was the identical as ours, there have been similarities between the characters too. I assumed that this was as a result of each movies have middle-class households, during which you discover the identical sorts of characters. Maybe that might’ve been a coincidence however the location being the identical was an issue as a result of the viewers acquired confused between the movies.”
She added that Pagglait released on Netflix first and so people had watched it by the time her film released on the same platform and started drawing comparisons. She said that the timing was weird, but she doesn’t know whose mistake it is. Either the Pagglait team should’ve held the film for longer or they should have, she said.
This could have been avoided if she would have been informed by the makers of Pagglait and both the teams could have changed a few things to make both their movies more individualistic, she added. She didn’t shy away from admitting her ignorance too because she found out late that a film just like her movie was being made.
While Seema-helmed Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi made a debut at the MAMI Film Festival in 2019 before it was released in theatres earlier this year, Umesh Bist’s directorial venture Pagglait was released on March 26 on Netflix. Both the films delve into similar themes: the death of a person and how it impacts the other members as they cope with their grief, tracing the journey of the family until the 13th day of the funeral ritual.
