Recently, filmmaker Jami Mahmood, released the trailer for his new movie, Jugnu. The trailer seemed visually stunning and appreciation for it was seen all over social media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqf7WbKRLug
A day after the trailer dropped, an NCA student, Ahmad Baig, accused the filmmaker of stealing Jugnu’s idea from a short film Baig made, 3 years ago.
Ahmad allegedly made the film while he was a student at the National College of Arts and Jami was on the judging panel. According to Ahmad, the trailer of Jugnu was a rip-off of his original short film. He even posted a side-by-side comparison of the trailer for Jugnu, and his own short film ‘Ibbo Ki Eid’.
You can see the original post below.
A few hours later, Ahmad posted that he had a conversation with Jami, and they had sorted things out.
Then, there was a new turn of events. Ahmad posted a screenshot of Jami’s conversation with him. In the conversation, the filmmaker allegedly writes that he won’t work with NCA students again.
In his post, Ahmad alleges that Jami had approached him and they had talked things out. However, Jami kept talking about it on social media and unfriended both Ahmad, and Ibbo Ki Eid’s writer, Sermad.
The writer of Ibbo Ki Eid, Sarmed Ibrahim Cheema, even posted a video explaining the whole ordeal.
Then, in the comments of this video, Jami himself posted a video clarifying his own stance.
These posts started circulating around Twitter, and people had a lot to say.
This is common of the media and marketing industry in Pakistan. Affluent people tend to steal ideas from people with lesser resources. Been through something similar back in my University days.
— TheRealMir (@_TheRealMir_) August 27, 2018
Some thought the filmmaker could’ve handled it better.
https://twitter.com/MaazPervez/status/1033980093280935937
This guy had thoughts about Jami’s other films.
https://twitter.com/st_aubrun/status/1033797578847076353
The filmmaker then eventually took to social media where he posted screenshots as well.
He posted screenshots of his conversation with Writer/Director of Jugnu, Ali Abbas Naqvi. This conversation had taken place in 2014, a whole year before ‘Ibbo Ki Eid’ was made.
#jugnu research & initial talks with writer director Ali abbas naqvi in 2014. Way way before Ibbo ki eid. Tried to explain to these young film makers to calm down sometimes stories match relax but the brutal attacks kept coming and ahsan rahim and gang jumps cuz my meesha stance pic.twitter.com/V7HwzUjwap
— jami-ازار (@jamiazaad) August 28, 2018
Not only this, but he also spoke up about the difficult process that they went through, to make Jugnu. He blamed NCA students for trying to malign his movie and hard work.
It took us 5 years to finish #jugnu process. 3 years of re writes living in interior sind training the Goat living with it and few #nca students thought they could bring us down to their level. Nca this is a wake up call. I believe in film schools but this is no way to act.
— jami-ازار (@jamiazaad) August 28, 2018
With screenshots, and videos, and other people being involved, this has turned in to a dirty blame game. With all the proof and both sides of the story, it is difficult to assume who is right, or wrong. We can only hope that the truth will prevail. We’ve reached out to Jami for comments.
What do you think about this whole ordeal?
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