Shirish Kunder’s viral short film ‘Kriti’ copied from Nepali film?
A still from the movie
Two days after Shirish Kunder unveiled his short film titled ‘Kriti’, an independant Nepali filmmaker Aneel Neupane has accused the director of plagiarism.
Kunder’s psychological thriller was uploaded on YouTube on June 22 and stars Manoj Bajpayee, Radhika Apte and Neha Sharma. Within a day of it’s launch, the film went viral and garnered over 1 million views on the platform. Kunder has directed Joker and Jaan-E-Mann in the past.
However, on Friday, an independent director from Nepal, Aneel Neupane, took to Facebook and accused the director of stealing the plot of ‘Kriti’ from his short film ‘BOB’.
While the Neupane’s film failed to reach the masses due to their shoestring budget, the director claims that he has been inundated with messages from those who have watched it.
In his emotional post, Neupane wrote, “Yesterday (June 23, 2016), I woke up to find Kriti on youtube. Initially, I thought maybe the first few frames, the setting and characters resembled BOB. I thought it was just a co-incidence. I was actually excited to watch a short film starring Mr. Manoj Bajpayee (A great actor whom I admire a lot!) and Neha sharma (whom I’ve had a HUGE crush on ever since I saw her in the movie Crook). As the movie progressed, I was shocked to find so much similarities.”
He further adds, “Now, I have no idea how to go about on this. I’m angry not because Mr. Shirish Kunder practically stole the plot and made it into his film. I’m angry because We didn’t even have lunch money while shooting BOB, and a spot boy for Kriti probably made more money than BOB’s entire budget. 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.”
The director, acknowledging that he might not be able to take the fight to Shirish Kunder legally, has requested those who’ve seen the movie to report it to YouTube. Those who support his claim, have started sharing his Facebook post to ensure it reaches more people. Many have also come to the conclusion that the films are ‘too similar’ for Kunder to have made it on his own.
In response to the allegations, 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”. In a following tweet, he added, “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.”
Neupane’s Post:
Kriti:
BOB:
