Melbourne, July 15: A 20 minute sensation, Kriti, a Bollywood film for the internet, released on June 22 by Sirish Kunder is under fire with allegations that the storyline was copied..
Earlier, Nepali film-maker Aneel Neupane had openly claimed that Shirish Kunder stole his plot and made it into his short film.
Sirish Kunder is the husband of well known choreographer and film maker Farah Khan.
Although, the Kriti’s director Shirish Kunder has dismissed allegations that his short movie is a copy of the Nepali short film, Tejaswee Rajthala of Jazz Productions based in Australia, is now bearing on into the allegation.
Talking to Bharat Times, Tejaswee claimed that the psychological-thriller – ‘Bob’ was financed by him from Australia – with a constrained budget of 32,000 Indian Rupees.
“Yes, I can confirm that the storyline of BOB was copied in Kriti.
“Aneel had sent me the script long time ago and I was really excited about making it into a short film”, Tejaswee said.
“I feel outrageous about the plagiarism but what’s even more infuriating is the fact that Mr. Kunder and his team are accusing us of stealing from their film”.
He confirmed that the script of Bob was written and the production had started much earlier than Kriti.
A Facebook post by Neupane, said Kunder “practically stole the plot” of his film.
The post read: ” My team at Jazz Productions and I worked super hard to make our latest release BOB…
“My team and I didn’t work our asses off just so some rich dude from India could turn it into this and get away with it. That’s just not fair.”
After the claims caught attention on digital platforms, Kunder, who is married to filmmaker Farah Khan, took to Twitter to settle the matter.
Kunder tweeted: “To those comparing ‘Kriti’ with some short film released on May 12, 2016. ‘Kriti’ was shot in February, 2016. Hope this settles the matter.”
Neupane alleges that his film was ready in October 2015 and he uploaded it on Vimeo “as a private video to share it with close friends” before releasing it on YouTube on May 12, this year.
Addressing this allegation, Kunder said: “About their claims of a private Vimeo link shared with close friends on October 2015. I’m not even their friend. Let alone close friend.”
Whether Aneel and his team will see any legal damages from Sirish Kunder, Tejaswee said that he “trusted Aneel and the team (Jazz Productions Nepal) to handle this situation”.
Meanwhile, Neupane introduced a positive aspect to the issue:
“On the plus side: In today’s Movie Industry, so many Nepali films are being made that are “inspired” from Bollywood…
“And my film was able to inspire A-Class Bollywood actors and filmmakers. I think that’s a win for Nepal. It’s nice to know that a smalltime rookie filmmaker from Nepal was able to inspire Big Time director and actors in Bollywood”.
In “Kriti”, Manoj Bajpayee is seen suffering from a psychological disorder, while Radhika Apte and Neha Sharma play crucial roles with Manu Rishi also essaying a role. The film is for the online platform muvizz.com but has been uploaded on Youtube as well.
Tejaswee Rajthala, meanwhile, is working on expanding the Jazz Productions franchise here in Australia under the name Jazz Productions Australia.
Ramakrishna VenuGopal