TVF Aspirants, a show based on the life and struggle of UPSC aspirants, garnered great response from the viewers for its content, story, and presentation but the show is facing allegations of plagiarism by a noted author.
Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer Nilotpal Mrinal has alleged that TVF’s show Aspirants has been plagiarised from his book 'Dark Horse'.
Sharing a long post on Facebook, Mrinal shared a photo of Arunabh Kumar and wrote, “Have shared Anurabh’s photo and details of the meeting with him to prove that he knew me as the writer of Dark Horse and was also aware of my interests to make a film based on the book.”
Mrinal said that it is very disappointing and he is going to take legal actions against the creators of the show for copying his book and not giving him any credit.
Nilotpal Mrinal said in a meeting with TVF’s Arunabh Kumar and had even suggested making a movie or a web series based on his book 'Dark Horse' . He even wrote that the meeting went well and Kumar had liked his idea. According to him “30 percent of Aspirants is based on his book, but that was not a concern for the people sitting in Mumbai.”
He shared, “People must have thought writers like Nilotpal come and go every day. Recently Satya Vyas’s Banaras Talkies was also stolen, what could these people do?”
The author further shared, “I’ll fight for Dark Horse, if I lose it will be the loss of Dark Horse’s writer, but if I win, it will be a win for every struggling writer whose stolen stories have turned into hit films/ web series.”
Mrinal said that he watched the entire series and decided that he will take legal actions to get justice so he would take the matter to court. He also wrote, that his “claims are based on discussion with the law and copyright specialists.”
TVF has responded to Nilotpal Mrinal's allegations and said, "released an official statement, that reads, “TVF is a creator-centric organization which has been nurturing writers since inception and takes their rights very seriously. A social media post has alleged that our show “Aspirants” has been inspired by another literary work. The Company has received a notice in this regard and we will fully cooperate to investigate the matter.”
TVF Aspirants is a 5 episodes series based on students who have come from various cities to fulfilling their aspirations of clearing UPSC. The content of the show was much appreciated and people lauded stars Naveen Kasturia, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Abhilash Thapliyal, Namita Dubey, and Sunny Hinduja, among others.