Chetan Bhagat Alleges Vidhu Vinod Chopra Denying Him Story Credit In His Film Drove Him Close To Suicide

Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has exposed Bollywood to a lot of uncomfortable questions about the practices of the industry and left celebrities bickering over issues like nepotism and struggles of outsiders to fit in. While Kangana Ranaut has been pushing the debate about actors from the outside being ill-treated, the issue isn’t certainly constrained to stars.

Author Chetan Bhagat whose various novels have been adapted to movies in Bollywood had on Monday sent out a warning to film critics to be mindful of what the right about Dil Bechara, Sushant’s last film which will soon release on Disney+ Hotstar.  In a tweet Chetan told critics, ‘Don't act oversmart. Don't write rubbish. Be fair and sensible. Don't try your dirty tricks. You have ruined enough lives. Now stop.’

His words stirred another debate in the comments and film critic Anupama Chopra responded to his tweet and wrote, ‘Each time you think the discourse can’t get lower, it does!’

Responding to Anupama who is married to film producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the author took her point about discourse and fired back, “Ma'am, when your husband publicly bullied me, shamelessly collected all the best story awards, tried denying me credit for my story and drove me close to suicide, and you just watched, where was your discourse?”

The film in question is Aamir Khan’s 2009 blockbuster 3 Idiots which has been adapted from his book 5 Point Someone. The controversy dragged on for a while before both parties, the makers and the author, distanced themselves from the matter.

To all the critics who hit back at him for the original tweet he wrote, “This tweet is only directed to the snob and elitist critics. So you can guess who is getting triggered by it. I only said be fair and sensible. Don't try dirty tricks. Why are they getting upset? PS: I do like fair, regular, down to earth critics and often read their work.”