Poet Yahya Bootwala Accuses 'Kesari 2' Makers of Plagiarism: 'This Is Clear Copy-Paste'
Spoken word artist Yahya Bootwala accuses Kesari 2 makers of copying lines from his 2020 poem. Netizens and industry voices demand accountability.
The Akshay Kumar and Ananya Panday starrer 'Kesari 2' has been garnering widespread appreciation since its release last week. Directed by Karan Singh Tyagi, the historical drama is inspired by the life of Indian lawyer C. Sankaran Nair and the events surrounding the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. With a strong opening, the film has earned ₹75 crore at the box office and benefited from decent to positive word-of-mouth reviews.
Kesari 2 dialogues controversy
However, a recent controversy has emerged online that is casting a shadow over the film’s success. A spoken word artist, Yahya Bootwala, has accused the film's dialogue writers of plagiarizing lines from his 2020 poetry performance.
Taking to Instagram, Yahya posted a video comparing a clip from Kesari 2 with footage from his April 2020 poem Jallianwala Bagh, originally performed for the UnErase Poetry YouTube channel. In the film, Ananya Panday delivers a dialogue that Yahya claims is nearly identical to lines from his spoken word piece.
Yahya Bootwala's copied poem
“So @nisoooooooooorg sent me a clip 4 days back from the movie Kesari 2 of dialogues he felt were copied from my poem titled Jallianwala Bagh, published 5 years ago on @unerasepoetry 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 the word phusphusana was lifted.”
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Yahya continued, calling out the film’s dialogue writer directly: “As writers, the worst thing you can do to a fellow writer is pick their material up, blatantly use it without giving credit — and this is what I feel dialogue writer @sumit.saxena.35912 has done here. If you’ve ever connected with my work, please tag @karanjohar, @karanstyagi, @dharmamovies, @akshaykumar, and @ananyapanday so that this reaches them.”
Netizens reaction
The post quickly went viral, drawing widespread attention from both netizens and personalities from the film industry. Actress Shreya Dhanwanthary commented, “This is messed up,” while film critic Sucharita Tyagi reacted with, “Oh nooooooo ugh.” Yahya added a pointed remark of his own, writing, “@dharmamovies @karanjohar — next time you can directly get in touch with me. Main likh dunga original dialogues aapke liye.”
The controversy sparked an outpouring of disappointment from social media users. Many expressed frustration over the alleged plagiarism, calling it "so wrong" and "a new low" for the industry. One user remarked that they had loved the now-controversial line in the movie, only to now learn that it may have been lifted from someone else's work. Another wrote that while plagiarism from Hollywood had once been common, it was now creators who were being copied. A few users criticized the lack of originality and effort, with one sarcastically commenting that they had put in more work avoiding getting caught cheating during exams than what the makers seemed to have done here.
As of now, there has been no official statement from the filmmakers or the cast addressing the plagiarism allegations.
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