Kesari 2, featuring Akshay Kumar, R. Madhavan, and Ananya Panday, has been performing well at the box office. However, the film now faces plagiarism allegations from YouTuber and poet Yahya Bootwala, who has raised concerns over the unauthorized use of his work.
Bootwala took to Instagram to point out striking similarities between a dialogue spoken by Ananya Panday in the film and his poem Jallianwala Bagh, which was uploaded on the UnErase Poetry YouTube channel five years ago. In a video post, he compared the two pieces, stating that the scene in question mirrored his original poem without any significant changes.
Addressing the matter publicly, Bootwala shared, “So @nisoooooooooorg sent me a clip 4 days back from the movie Kesari 2 with dialogues he felt were copied from my poem Jallianwala Bagh, published 5 years ago on @unerasepoetry’s YouTube channel. Here are the two clips and honestly, this is a clear copy-paste. It’s not like they’ve tried to hide it either — even specific words like phusphusana have been lifted. As writers, the worst thing you can do to a fellow writer is blatantly use their material without giving credit. And that’s exactly what I feel dialogue writer @sumit.saxena.35912 has done.”
Dialogues from Kesari 2 were plagiarized by Dharma without crediting the original writer/poet
byu/ProperPenguinn inBollyBlindsNGossip
Bootwala further encouraged his followers to tag the film’s cast and crew, hoping to draw their attention to the situation. He also humorously remarked in the comments by tagging Karan Johar and suggesting that they could have hired him instead.
Following the uproar, Bootwala revealed that the Instagram reel comparing the two clips had been removed, although he clarified that he was not responsible for its deletion. Updating his supporters, he wrote in a new Instagram post, “The reel about Kesari 2 using my lines has been taken off from my Instagram. I haven’t removed the reel. Nonetheless, I will keep talking about the issue till the matter is resolved and keep you guys updated as you all have been kind enough to come to my aid and support me. I have nothing but love and gratitude for you guys and ummeed hai ke this gets resolved soon. Aap log bhi saath banaye rakhiye and is baat ko jitna amplify kar sakte hai utna karte rahiye. Thankyou again.”
So far, the Kesari 2 team has not officially responded to the claims. Meanwhile, discussions around originality and credit in the creative field continue to gain momentum online.
