Gauri Shinde refutes claims of 'Dear Zindagi' being a copy of 'Being Erica'

This news might come across as hard to swallow. In the past couple of days, there's buzz about Dear Zindagi, directed by Gauri Shinde being being a "replica" of Canadian TV series, Being Erica, doing the rounds online.

Multiple parallels were drawn between Alia Bhatt’s character Kiara and Erica played by Erin Karpluck. Also, Shah Rukh Khan's role of Alia's shrink is said to have been inspired by Dr Tom, played by Michael Ray. Even dialogues from Dear Zindagi like "har tooti hui cheez jodi ja sakti hai" have been likened to Dr Tom’s "whatever it is that you are unhappy about, I can fix it," line. Wait, it's not over yet. Alia’s boyfriends in the movie, played by Angad Bedi and Ali Zafar's counterparts too, have been found in Being Erica. Bedi like the "too good to be dumped"  Ethan and Zafar like "a charming musician" Kai who woos Erica in public.  

But unlike Being Erica, Dear Zindagi doesn’t take the time travel route. However, the parallels drawn are too glaring to go unnoticed. So when a tabloid contacted Gauri, the director was taken aback by the buzz and responded via an SMS saying, "Huh? I don’t even know what series you are talking about. But, yes, it is a good try on the part of whoever wants to bring this movie down.Why don’t people watch the show, since I haven’t, and decide for themselves? I don’t read rubbish. There is so much baseless crap out there and I can’t respond to everything."

It's a deja vu encore for Shinde because her first directorial venture, English Vinglish (2012), starring Sridevi which also did well unfortunately, similar reports surfaced. It was touted to be a take of the beloved British sitcom Mind Your Language, about a motley group of people of various nationalities trying to learn English. Revisiting these rumours, Gauri replied, “Trust me, people are never happy with others’ success. They tried to do the same with English Vinglish. But, all this doesn’t bother me at all.”