Simran is not copied from Barfi! or Amélie: Hansal Mehta on the Kangana Ranaut starrer

Since the teaser of Kangana Ranaut-starrer Simran released on May 14, there has been buzz about similarities with French film Amélie (2001) and Anurag Basu’s Barfi! (2012). Many, who watched the teaser, found Kangana’s fun-loving character, Simran, similar to Audrey Tautou’s character in Améli, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Many viewers also commented that the soundscape of the teaser reminded them of Anurag Basu’s Barfi! (2012).

As soon as the teaser got uploaded, a YouTube user, Jack sparrow wrote, “same barfi muvie wali feeling aai me ko aur koi h jise same laga?” Voicing the same opinion, Siva Manikkam wrote, “ala barfi !!!..queen2”. Tathagata Mukherjee commented “The theme music reminds me of Barfi <3”. Sudarshan Parthasarathy wrote, “Amilie vibes (not saying it’s copied/wrong or anything that can trigger you to write long replies about how dumb I am )” Reacting to his comment, Shraddha Singh wrote, “Same here! I only hope it’s a good copy :)”. Swagat Waghmare asked, “Anyone getting Amelie vibes?” Shivam Srivastava wrote on Facebook, “looks like Amelie”. Another user, Akshay Rajput called it “Barfi 2”.

However, Hansal Mehta, who has directed Simran, denies any similarity between the films. “I would just let the film speak for itself. Simran is a unique film. Also, it’s just a teaser that we have released. I don’t know how people are guessing or getting to understand so much from just a teaser,” says Mehta, who had earlier directed critically acclaimed films such as Shahid (2013), CityLights (2014) and Aligarh (2015).

He adds that the story of the film will surprise everyone. “Simran has an interesting plot that I am hoping would connect with the audience when it releases in September. It’s a slice of life story. Apurva (Asrani) is the brain behind the tale,” says Hansal