Nat’l award winning film Brihonnola’s honour scrapped

The government has stripped of national award winning film “Brihonnola” of the recognition after finding it copied the storyline from a writer without permission.

A fact finding committee has found the allegations brought against the film true, Mortuza Ahmed, the information secretary, told The Daily Star this evening.

Bangladesh government has scrapped the national awards given to the film and is initiating legal steps against the movie’s director and storymaker, he added.

Winner of the 2014 National Award for Best Film, Murad Parvez's “Brihonnola” became subject of controversy after accusations came up against the director for plagiarising Syed Mustafa Siraj's short novel, “Gaachti Bolechilo.”

Premiered in September 2014, the movie had earned National Film Award in three categories -- best film, best screenplay and best dialogue.

After scrapping the awards, the new awardees will be -- Nekabborer Mahaprayan (Best Film), Akhtaruzzaman Ilias (Best Story for Meghmallar) and Zahidur Rahman Anjan (Best Dialogues, Meghmallar).

Allegations came to surface after the distribution of the awards that the film story fully matches with West Bengal’s noted writer Syed Mustafa Siraj’s short story “Gaachti Bolecilo’ [The tree spoke].  Siraj’s eldest son Abhijit Siraj raised the claim last year.

READ MORE: Director opens up on Brihonnola dispute

Murad Parvez had previously made his debut film “Chandragrahan” based on Siraj’s story “Rani Ghater Brittanto”, with due permission and credits. But, he did not take any permission before making “Brihonnola”, Abhijit Siraj said.

Last month, noted Indian writers Shirshendu Mukherjee and Debesh Roy had written a complaint letter to the information ministry and demanded royalty.

Following the allegation, a three-member probe committee was formed to look into the matter, said the secretary.

“The cancellation was done after the probe committee found the allegations true,” he added.

He also said the government will take actions against the director and screenwriter and the grant money will be taken back.

“Among other conditions for government grant, the film’s story must be original,” he said.

Film director Murad Parvez and actor Ferdous could not be contacted after repeated attempts.

“Brihonnola” also won the Best Original Screenplay (to Murad Parvez) and Best Actress (Sohana Saba) at the 2015 Jaipur International Film Festival.