New Delhi: After not so successful 'Jaaneman' followed by an absolute flop 'Joker', director Shirish Kunder was receiving accolades for his latest short film 'Kriti' starring Radhika Apte and Manoj Bajpayee.
Unfortunately, this popularity was short-lived as the 18 minute thriller got mired in controversy amid copyright claims by a Nepali filmmaker.
After getting as many as 2.5 million views, the short film was taken down today by Youtube.
The message on the YouTube read: “The video is no longer available due to copyright claim by Aneel Neupane”
Nepali filmmaker Aneel Neupane had alleged that Shirish Kunder has copied the plot of Kriti from his own short film ‘BOB’, released seven months ago.
On the other hand, Shirish Kunder had asserted that it was Neupane who was guilty of plagiarism and demanded that BOB be taken offline immediately.
A defiant Kunder sent Mr Neupane a legal notice demanding an "unconditional written apology" and has asked him to refrain from making any oral or written comments on Kriti. He also suggested that it was Mr Neupane who was guilty of plagiarism and demanded that BOB be taken offline immediately.
“That short film (Bob) was released on May 12 whereas we shot Kriti in February, after which it was in post-production. How is it even possible to ‘lift’ the idea, unless I was time travelling,” he was quoted as saying by an entertainment
Shirish Kunder told news agency PTI that these "allegations are technically, factually and logically baseless." He insisted that he could not have copied Aneel Neupane's plot because the timelines didn't match. "That short film (Bob) was released on May 12 whereas we shot Kriti in February, after which it was in post-production. How is it even possible to 'lift' the idea, unless I was time travelling," he said.
However, lately it was found that ‘Kriti’ has been removed from YouTube.
The 18-minute long film was released on YouTube on June 22. Kriti, reportedly, received rave responses from members of the film fraternity and critics a like.
Here are some of the tweets
However, some Twitteratis also stood behind him
Meanwhile, Shirish’s wife Farah Khan too had come out in his support earlier when the plagiarism charges surfaced. She had said that Shirish had been working on the script of Kriti for almost last three years and it is sad that anyone can claim that it was their idea. While speaking to a leading daily, Farah had reportedly told a leading daily, “He was working on the idea when I was shooting for 'Happy New Year' (2014). Writing is a long process. He has so many scripts with him. He would keep bouncing off his ideas with Vishal Dadlani (music composer) and me. So, he has been working on the script for the last three years”.
Lashing out at the Nepalese filmmakers, Farah had said, “Nobody knew about their film until recently, but there is a limit to everything. Every time a film releases, someone gets up and alleges plagiarism. Any Tom, Dick and Harry cannot just cry foul and take away someone's hard work.”
