Udta Punjab could have been plagiarised from British novel High Society

Mumbai: The novel has characters that are uncannily similar to the characters of Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Diljit Dosanjh. Even the title seems to be a direct lift, with ‘High’ translating to ‘Udta’ and ‘Society’ being referenced in Punjab.

In the novel, Tommy Hanson is an extremely successful British musician with a drug problem.

Jessie, a seventeen-year-old Scottish girl, runs away from home to London, who’s forced into prostitution, runs away from her pimp and deals with a drug problem herself.

And then there’s high-ranking Commander Barry Leman, who fights for justice after his daughter’s friend is sexually assaulted.

Too familiar, yes? But there's more.

Many snippets and character trajectories from the book, like the rockstar semi-tonsuring his head and getting a derogatory term inked onto his head, the rockstar’s posse roaming around with neckpieces declaring them to be his crew, being chased by fans and chancing into the immigrant girl while escaping, amongst others, have also found their way into the film.

Director Abhishek Chaubey and writer Sudip Sharma have reportedly rubbished all plagiarism charges but all the obvious similarities are going to break the hearts of scores of the film’s fans.