The plagiarism controversy surrounding the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series Gram Chikitsalay has cast a shadow over its May 9 release, as serious allegations from filmmaker Anindyabikas Datta have come to light. His claims raise critical questions about intellectual property rights, ethics in content creation, and accountability in India's streaming ecosystem.
Datta, a registered member of the Screenwriters Association (SWA), alleges that actor Vinay Pathak — now playing the lead in Gram Chikitsalay — lifted the core idea, characters, and plot of his registered 2020 screenplay Quack Shankar. According to him, he shared the full project deck and script with Pathak in 2021 in hopes of casting him. The discussions eventually stalled. However, when the trailer for Gram Chikitsalay recently dropped, Datta claims the similarities were “uncanny,” prompting him to go public via a detailed Facebook post — even including screenshots of their 2021 correspondence as supporting evidence.
The allegations come at a particularly sensitive moment, just days before the series’ scheduled launch. Produced by the highly influential content studio TVF, Gram Chikitsalay has drawn attention for its rustic setting, unique humour, and socially driven themes — all elements that Datta claims were intrinsic to his original work. This further intensifies the charge, as Quack Shankar is reportedly still in pre-production, with financial commitments already made and casting discussions ongoing.
So far, neither Vinay Pathak, TVF, nor Amazon Prime Video have issued any statements regarding the accusations. The silence could be strategic, given the imminent release and the potential for legal escalation. However, should Datta formally pursue the matter through SWA or a court, it may result in a halt, injunction, or at least reputational damage for the show.
At the core of this dispute is the ongoing challenge in India’s entertainment industry around safeguarding writers' contributions. While organisations like SWA provide script registration and dispute resolution mechanisms, the enforcement of these protections is still often slow and opaque.
This controversy may set a precedent — either by prompting greater transparency in how scripts are handled or by highlighting the difficulty independent creators face when going up against major production houses.
