CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court ordered to announce the 31st Odisha State Film Award, 2019 afresh in one month after finding that the previously selected Odia films had been largely plagiarised from other language films, taking great offence to plagiarism in the film industry.

A director named Bobby Islam filed a lawsuit in the Orissa High Court claiming that many of the films included in the 31st Odisha State Film Award, 2019 final selection list were remakes of some films produced in other languages, which shouldn't have been eligible for the prizes in the first place.

The film "Khusi" from Taranga Cine Production, which was chosen for prizes in five categories, was claimed to be a remake of the Korean film "Hope," and the film "Golmaal Love" was claimed to have been plagiarised from the Punjabi film "Carry on Jatta."

According to the petitioner, the selection was in violation of the Department of Odia Culture's announcement for the 31st Odisha State Film Awards, 2019, which stated that dubbed, altered, copied, or recreated versions of films were not eligible for entry.
Orissa High Court Justice Dr. S.K. Panigrahi, who was adjudicating the case, stated, "I have personally watched both films for better comprehension of the charges. It appears that at least two of the films, such as "Khusi" and "Golmal Love," were greatly influenced by allegedly non-Odia films after visual inspection of the movies.

It is evident from the abundance of facts, circumstances, and stated overlap that the impugned motion pictures are uncredited remakes of the aforementioned non-Odia films when comparing the plot and scenes in the impugned movies with those in the Korean film "Hope" and the Punjabi movie "Carry on Jatta." These movies have been slightly edited to avoid being detected as having an eerie similarity. Other than that, the movies are exact replicas of the disputed non-Odia movies. According to the Orissa Film Award Rules, the substance of the contested films cannot be deemed "original" from any point of view, said Justice Panigrahi.

"The contested award list is riddled with obvious flaws that go against state law regulations. The Odisha government and other opposing parties have been careless in allowing these irregularities to go unpunished. He said it is a source of tremendous shame and concern for the Odia film and artist communities since the contested films were chosen as winners of the prestigious Odia State Cine Awards.

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