Filmmaker Bhandari held for plagiarism

Police on Sunday arrested documentary filmmaker Tulsi Bhandari for violating the Copyright Act. Bhandari has been accused of stealing footages fro documentaries of filmmaker and journalist Ajay Siwakoti.

According to Siwakoti, Bhandari’s recent documentary— ‘Beneath Everest-Nepal Reborn’ comprises three-minute footages of his documentaries—’Jhalak’ and ‘Andolan Jaari Cha’. The two documentaries were made by Siwakoti in 2003 and 2004 to promote the people’s movement II.

Siwakoti said Bhandari took his documentaries to the Muskegon Film Festival in the US in 2006. In the film festival, his documentary bagged the Public Choice Award. Later, Bhandari copied the footages and used them in his documentary in 2009.

The truth dawned on Siwakoti before this Dashain through one of the volunteers who worked for Bhandari’s campaign to promote the film and after he checked website www.beneath-everest.com.

“I was shocked when I saw photos of my footages in someone else’s documentary,” Siwakoti said. Bhandari had screened the film in 37 places inside and outside the country. “I requested him to stop screening the documentary and compensate for the damage done, but he didn’t agree and he (Bhandari), instead, filed a public offence case against me last week,” Siwakoti said.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Lal Mani Acharya at the Metropolitan Police Range, Hanumandhoka, Bhandari was produced in the Kathmandu District Court soon after his arrest. The court has said a hearing will take place in the case within 10 days. Bhandari is in police custody at Hanuman Dhoka.

Source: Kantipur

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