Kajol and Shruti Haasan made their digital debuts with short film Devi, where they shares screen space with nine other actresses. Apart from them, the film also stars Neha Dhupia, Neena Kulkarni, Mukta Barve, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Yashaswini Dayama, Sandhya Mhatre and Rama Joshi. It is a suspense drama, directed by debutant filmmaker Priyanka Banerjee, and depicts how nine women from distinct strata of society are forced into a sisterhood owing to a circumstance, where they are compelled to share their stories of abuse.
The film was released by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films on March 2, and is available for viewing on YouTube. Devi is produced by Niranjan Iyengar and Ryan Ivan Stephen, whose production company operates as Electric Apples Entertainment.
The short film has been widely appreciated by one and all but the makers have not found themselves in trouble after Abhishek Rai, a student of Asian Academy of Film and Television, has accused them of plagiarism. He took to Facebook and shared his grievance, "Of course our film was a student film, with very little production design, bad audio and stuff, but still it's a child of our own imagination and it's ruthless how anyone can just pick up a piece of thought and claim it to be theirs." He further added that Four is an intellectual property of the college and hence, called out for support from the students and faculty that action can be take against makers of Devi.
For the unversed, the concept and ending of both Devi and Four are identical. The latter also revolves around real-life cases of rape and sexual abuse, including Kathua rape-murder case.
Makers and cast of Devi remained unavailable for comment.
(Source: Facebook/with inputs from IANS)
