‘Chupke Chupke’ inspired by ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’?

We took to Instagram to see if people saw the resemblance

The television serial Chupke Chupke directed by comedian Danish Nawaz, has seen enormous success since it’s Ramazan release. The show, starring actors Osman Khalid Butt and Ayeza Khan has been incredibly well-received, earning praise on par with its predecessor Suno Chanda, which proved to be a huge Ramazan hit.

When it comes to art, inspiration is key, and more often than not we find inspiration in the art we have known and loved already. When it comes to the inspiration for a certain scene in Chupke Chupke, we believe the source material is rather apparent. The scene follows the characters of Osman Khalid Butt and Ayeza Khan on a moonlit night, with Ayeza dressed in purple, donning a gorgeous purple net dupatta and Osman in white. Now, correct us if we’re wrong, but the similarity to a certain scene from the Bollywood classic Salman Khan and Aishwariya Rai starrer Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam jumped out the moment we saw it. However, it should be understood that a fine line exists between inspiration and outright imitation, and we don’t think levelling any plagiarism accusations here would be fair.

The inspiration seems pretty clear to us, but just to be sure, we asked Instagram users whether they were seeing what we were. The reactions were pretty mixed, ranging from agreement all the way to calling the comparison hate-mongering (yes, we are as confused as you are by that one). We’ve compiled the best reactions here for your viewing pleasure, so you can decide for yourself whether the resemblance exists or not.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Express Tribune Life&Style (@tribunelifestyle)

Several users were quick to agree, claiming that the resemblance was rather apparent. One Instagram user said, “The moment I saw this I knew it was inspired by HDDCS.” Another commented, “Oh that is why sis was praying to the moon. I was confused,” with reference to the scene from the Bollywood film. Some users claimed that the resemblance was obvious since the first teasers aired. The user said, “Yes, realized even in the promos!!” One user straight up just asked us to chill, saying, “we saw but we are not tripping over it.” Some Instagrammers were rather irked by the comparison, with one user commenting, “Coincidence hai bhai jeenay do duniya ko (it is just a coincidence, let us live in peace).”

One unexpected comment claimed we were hate-mongering with the comparison, saying, “Do you realise you are causing friction between India and Pak by posting such posts. We have enough hate in the world already. We don’t need more. Spread love not hate.” One user was annoyed at showrunners potentially taking inspiration from Bollywood. “Stop mimicking Indians… does our media have any originality left in them or are couple goals only associated with looking like Indian celebrities from 30 years ago?”

Ultimately, some users simply didn’t care enough to comment on the resemblance, choosing instead to take the neutral route of just fangirling over the Chupke Chupke stars. “Faiz and Meenu are the most beautiful on-screen couple of the industry. #Feenu.” That’s one stance we can definitely get behind!