Mainak lands in plagiarism row

Plagiarism charges in Tollywood are not new. Time and again, directors have found themselves mired in controversies that stem from alleged intellectual property theft. This time it’s director Mainak Bhaumik, who has found himself in the middle of one. Buzz in T-town is that the story of his web series, Boys, is heavily inspired by the script of Soumyajit Majumdar’s maiden directorial, Ebhabei Phirey Asha Jaaye.Soumyajit and Mainak have earlier worked together in six films and have since shared a friendship that goes beyond filmi collaborations.
Word is, Soumyajit was sharing the script drafts of his project with Mainak out of good faith. However, things took a sour turn when Soumyajit was finalised for Mainak’s Boys and the script was sent across to him. The actor, on receiving the script for the episodes he will feature in, was engulfed by an overwhelming feeling of déjà vu. He noticed striking similarities between the scenes, characters, premises and even backstories with the script of his directorial. Upon addressing this with Mainak, he acknowledged the similarities and said they were surprisingly coincidental. The director amicably agreed to rewrite the portions. However, the final, re-edited draft still reeked of similarities that were defying possibilities of a coincidence.
Soumyajit is disheartened at the act of plagiarism from a “close friend”.

Speaking to us about it, Soumyajit, “I am the founder of a screenwriter’s collective. They had sent all the relevant details of the plagiarism act to the producers of Boys and I am glad that they reached out to me and heard me out. I have full faith in them. It’s disheartening that we live in a time when our industry is being regularly accused of intellectual bankruptcy because of the raining plagiarism issues. It’s scary when someone you used to look up to, someone with whom you have worked as a close friend and a collaborator in six feature films, decides to maliciously and meticulously plagiarise your debut indie feature film script by infusing his “replacement theory” which, over the years, he has been boasting about in close circles. It’s scarier that he chose to cast me in a role in this plagiarised web series (his only project in the last six years that I didn’t know much about) days before the shoot simply to satisfy his power trip.” According to Soumyajit, Mainak, when confronted, admitted that there are “similarities and that’s coincidental and surprising”. “More than 30 direct whopping similarities amidst countless indirect ones cleverly tweaked,” he added.
When we reached out to Mainak, he refuted any possible connection between the two projects. He said, “It’s merely a coincidence. Soumyajit felt that there were similarities. I didn’t seem to notice them. But since he was paranoid, I agreed to alter the scenes.” Mainak further added that the project has been stalled because of issues pertaining to the casting of the series and has nothing to do with the similarities. “I haven’t been able to lock the dates of the cast members. It’s a big project and it takes time. I’m working on another film and hence had to shelve this project,” he clarified.
A spokesperson from the production house that was in talks with Mainak for the web series, said, “Talks were on but the project wasn’t commissioned. Mainak was directly handling the matter. We have nothing to add to that.” Earlier, Mainak was accused of copying his own film, Ami vs Tumi, in Bibaho Diaries.