YouTube removes Shirish Kunder’s Short Film ‘Kriti’ after copyright claim

YouTube has removed Shirish Kunder’s short film ‘Kriti’ after Nepalese filmmaker Aneel Neupane filed a copyright claim.

Aneel is the director of a Nepalese short film titled ‘BOB’ which was made on a budget of Rs 32,000 and released about 7 months ago.

Following Aneel’s accusation of plagiarism, Shirish had sent a legal notice, demanding “unconditional written apology”

“Assuming your position is correct that the two films are so similar, then it is you who has infringed our client’s copyright” the notice to Neupane read.

Kunder also demanded Neupane to take down ‘Bob’ from the internet immediately and refrain from publishing the same or any part thereof on any other medium.

A day after Kunder’s legal notice, Aneel filed a copyright claim. YouTube, after verifying the claim, has decided to take down ‘Kriti’.

Kriti Short Film Removed

Kriti Short Film Removed

For those interested, here is the ‘open letter’ by Aneel

My name is Aneel Neupane and Im a filmmaker.

My team at Jazz Productions and I worked super hard to make our latest release BOB. We gave our blood and sweat to this project. We had a super hard time finding anyone to fund this project, so we pleaded our friend Tejaswee Rajthala (Jazz Productions Australia) to invest and he did. But We were constrained by the budget limitation of NRS. 50,000 (32,000 Indian Rupees). It was not a lot to go on with, but Im personally super grateful to the whole cast and crew for believing in the story, volunteering and making it possible to create this film in that limited budget.

We had the film ready in October 2015. I had uploaded it on Vimeo as a private video to share it with close friends. You can see here (https://vimeo.com/145062291) that the video is 7 months old. We finally released it on youtube on May 12, 2016. As of right now, there are 3033 views. Although thats not a lot of views, I have been getting a lot of messages and amazing feedback from so many people! Thank you all for appreciating BOB. Your response made me feel like all the effort and sleepless nights were worth it.

However! (Plot twist here)

Yesterday (June 23, 2016), I woke up to find Kriti (http://bit.ly/28RiRXB) 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 Ive 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.

Now, I have no idea how to go about on this. Im angry not because Mr. Shirish Kunder practically stole the plot and made it into his film. Im angry because We didnt even have lunch money while shooting BOB, and a spot boy for Kriti probably made more money than BOBs entire budget. My team and I didnt work our asses off just so some rich dude from India could turn it into this and get away with it. Thats just not fair.
On the plus side: In todays Movie Industry, so many Nepali films are being made that are inspired from Bollywood. It feels like most Nepali Filmmakers just sit and watch of a couple Bollywood movies and mix the plot together to make one crappy Nepali film. And my film was able to inspire A-Class Bollywood actors and filmmakers. I think thats a win for Nepal. Its nice to know that a smalltime rookie filmmaker from Nepal was able to inspire Big Time director and actors in Bollywood.

Now, honestly, Im clueless as to what I have to do next. If I take the fight to them, I dont think Im equipped financially or otherwise. It would just be a tiny voice screaming from far away for them. And a lot of people told me that they will just get away with it as they have by ripping off of numerous other films from all over the world.

It would be nice if you guys would help report the video on youtube. :)

Thanks!

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18 Comments

  • This shirish kunder is stain oin Bollywood ….. A dumb man without shame dont know how people like manoj Bajpayee agree to work with such trash

  • Isme Modi ka haath hai

    Shirish kunder supports Kejriwal.

    Shirish kejriwal ka dost hai.

    So Modi ne kejriwal se badla lene k liye sirish kunder Ki film remove kar di

  • Shame on him,i get it Shrish Kunder does not have any creativity but stealing someones storyline is not nice at all.

  • Assuming your position is correct that the two films are so similar, then it is you who has infringed our clients copyright the notice to Neupane read.

    ROFL. Which lawyer had the guts to send such a notice?
    How can “BOB”, which which was uploaded in 2015, be copied from “Kriti” which was released in 2016?

    Its like Rakesh Roshan sending copyright notice to Steven Spielberg for copying “ET” (1984) from “Koi Mil Gaya” (2003), considering there are many similarities.

  • Now I think Ram Gopal Varma will send a notice to Ramesh Sippy for copying “Sholay” from his film “Aag”.


    Dear Ramesh Sippy,
    The characters, scenes, songs, setting from Sholay are all exactly resembling to those in RGV ki AAG.
    Assuming your position is correct that “Aag” and “Sholay” are so similar, then it is you who has infringed our client Ram Gopal Varmas copyright.

  • It is because they invited the panauti and arrogant Kangana to an event of the short film, Kriti. Now, you suffer.

  • So, obviously, our dear Babaji will hate this Director, Aneel. We all know he has also crush on Neha Sharma. Well, I pray all the best to Babaji for the new competition.

  • Now I think maybe Janeman movie is also plagiarised from any unknown movie of any small industry.(as it is much appreciated by media and critics, but not by audiences; which is unbelievable for Shirish and Salman combo). Two of the industries most non-intelligent and worst persons came together to make a good movie! Highly unlikely that Janeman was original.

  • We can’t forgive this lady Kangana for how she has tried to destroyed the image of our beloved Hrithik.

  • Even that retarded Farah is busy siding her husband but that’s her only option. Let her not just make false allegations of BOB. Let them further do research on Joker and TMK…even though it will be hard for any normal person from another country to write those kind of scripts.

  • Watched it. Its a pshyco thriller in which manoj creates imaginary persons
    The director is not intellegent enough to make such a thing. Must be copied

  • even his wife steal/copy too many times

    Karz-Om shanti On
    Happy New Year-ocean11,12,13/now you see me
    Tees mar khan-after the fox
    both should be banned from directing movies

  • Loved his Jann-e-mann and then after watching Kriti I thought, that this guy could actually present stories in a unique way and thinks creatively/original(few of his tweets have been smart) but he has copied BOB so blatantly that he should be kept under house arrest and allowed only to spit on twitter.

  • Today I realised why this shirish kundar slapped by KING KHAN not only insulting RA ONE but also by copying films.

    No doubt he is a classless director because he worked with flopstar’s like salman,akki.

    Worst films of shirish is—-jaan e man (started salamn and akki),joker (starred akki).

  • Today I realised why this shirish kundar slapped by KING KHAN not only insulting RA ONE but also by copying films.

    No doubt he is a classless director because he worked with flopstars like salman,akki.

    Worst films of shirish is—-jaan e man (started salamn and akki),joker (starred akki).

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