The makers of Kriti have rubbished accusations of plagiarism
Keyur Seta
Shirish Kunder’s short film, Kriti was removed from YouTube yesterday after Aneel Neupane, a Nepali filmmaker, accused him of stealing the plot from his psychological thriller, Bob and claimed copyrights to the film. However, the Jaan-e-Mann director and Muvizz.com, the producers, have rubbished off all claims of plagiarism. They have also a slammed a legal notice on Neupane for defamation.
The makers have now released a detailed official statement claiming innocence. An excerpt from the statement reads, “We have asked the director of Bob to substantiate his allegations with facts. Not only has he failed to do that but has so far chosen to not even reply to our legal communication. Bob was initially released online with a private key to the director’s personal friends, none of whom are known to anyone at our end. If otherwise, we would like to know who amongst those with access shared the private key and more importantly to whom was it shared with.”
The producers have also stated that a removal of the short film from YouTube doesn’t prove charges of plagiarism. “A takedown on YouTube is not a proof of wrongdoing but only that the matter is being investigated.”
Neupane hasn’t discussed his further course of action. We tried contacting him but he was unavailable to comment.
