Amitabh Bachchan’s look of the Muslim Patriarch in Gulabo Sitabo is being talked about. While some would say the look is a stereotypical representation of a ghetto patriarch from a particular community, a photographer Mayank Austen Sufi has come out on Twitter to accuse the film’s makers of copying the look of an old man whose picture Mayank had posted on social media in January 2019.
Mayank says on Twitter, “OH DAMN! Actor Amitabh Bachchan’s “first look” from the forthcoming movie Gulabo Sitabo is exactly the replica of an Old Delhi man whose portrait I clicked and posted on my Insta in Jan last year—down to his scarf, beard, glasses!..”
Indeed Bachchan Saab’s look in Gulabo Sitabo is identical to the picture posted by Mayank Austen Sufi.
While Shoojit Sircar refused to comment on the allegation of apery a source close to the project confirms that Big B’s look indeed came from social media.
“Though we don’t know where,” says the source.
Interestingly that is not the only inspired element in Gulabo Sitabo. Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar playing Baburao Ganpatrao and Raju brought the house down in Priyadarshan’s Hera Pheri. Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana in Gulabo Sitabo certainly seem inspired by the earlier squabbling landlord-tenant duo in Hera Pheri.
Says a source, “The inspiration is clearly taken from Priyadarshan’s Hera Pheri down to the taunts barbs and insults exchanged by the landlord and tenant.”