Chetan Bhagat Calls out Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra in a Heated Twitter Debate

Popular writer Chetan Bhagat has alleged that ‘3 Idiots’ producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra bullied him to the extent of almost driving him to suicide. This revelation came up in one of his twitter chats with film critic and journalist- Anupama Chopra yesterday. For those not aware, Anupama Chopra is the wife of producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

‘3 Idiots’ was based on Chetan Bhagat’s popular novel ‘Five Point Someone.’ The heated debate began when Chetan Bhagat requested the media to be “fair and sensible” to Sushant Singh’s last film ‘Dil Bechara.’ 

Here’s what he wrote:

Anupama Chopra retweeted his tweet saying, “Each time you think the discourse can’t get lower, it does!” The conversation lead to the film ‘3 Idiots’ and the old “story credit’ controversy. 

Chetan Bhagat pointed out how her husband almost drove him close to suicide by not crediting him appropriately for the hugely successful film. The film that bagged all the coveted awards in 2009! He tweeted, “Ma'am, when your husband publicly bullied me, shamelessly collected all the best story awards, tried denying me credit for my story and drove me close to suicide, and you just watched, where was your discourse ?”

The film which featured Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, and Omi Vaidya went on to become a blockbuster in 2009. Chetan was however not satisfied with the manner the credits were given. 

In a 2010 interview, Chetan said, “It’s fine that they've given me credit in the rolling credits, but how can they not give me credit for the story? The film is based on my book; they have to give me [credit].”

The film fell into controversy immediately upon its release in 2009. 

Supposedly Chetan Bhagat’s name appears right at the end and he was not given due credit. The filmmakers gave their stance and explained that the film was only 2% to 5% inspired by the book and not entirely. 

When the controversy arose Bhagat even blogged about it and wrote, “The setting, characters, plotline, dramatic twists and turn .. one-liners, theme, message - almost all aspects that make up the story are from FPS. Yes, there are some changes, any adaptation requires that – but it is no way an original story. Leading movie critics have privately admitted to me that the film is 70% of the book. Still, don’t take my word for it – go read the book, watch the film.”

As the writer aptly puts it, the right people to solve this ongoing debate are the people who “read the book and watched the film.”