19 March,2026 07:58 AM IST | Mumbai | Mohar Basu
Mayukha Patel. Pics/Instagram
"I'm not making allegations." That's among the first things director Mayukha Patel told mid-day, when we contacted her after watching her reel. On March 15, Patel posted an Instagram reel that pointed out similarities between her 2021 film Dihadi, and Neeraj Ghaywan's acclaimed Homebound (2025).
Dihadi draws from an incident in Patel's hometown, Himatnagar in Gujarat, where a migrant worker got lost in a village while trying to find the highway during the lockdown. Ghaywan's film, starring Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa, is inspired by a real-life story and tells the story of two migrant workers who struggle to reach their hometown amid the pandemic-induced lockdown. "It could be a coincidence. Sometimes, similar ideas can emerge," Patel reflected.
Her idea behind posting the reel was bigger than levelling allegations. The director wanted to highlight how indie cinema makes meaningful stories. She shared, "Independent filmmakers are already telling these kinds of stories before bigger studios make them. [We have] distribution challenges, platforms are not ready to take up indie films, and a film [like Dihadi] goes unnoticed. Then a movie with a similar topic comes along and wins praise. Our goal was to tell the audience to pay attention to independent films and makers, and support them so that they can raise funds and bring better stories."
Last December, mid-day reported that author Puja Changoiwala had accused âHomebound' makers of plagiarising her 2021 book of the same name. Some of the alleged similarities included:
. A scene where the migrants attempt to board a special train but are subjected to lathi-charge.
. A sequence where a Muslim character is asked to adopt a Hindu name for safety during the journey.
