A tribute video to late actor Sridevi that was premiered at the recently held IFFA Awards was allegedly plagiarised. Saba Arif, a content creator and editor at an online retail store, claimed that she made the video and posted it on her YouTube account on March 2018 this year. The video that was shown at the ceremony retained a majority of her work, she alleged. She also said that it was tweaked slightly with a voiceover and different images being added to it. She has not been credited for her effort and said that this could have been a big platform for her.
On her Facebook account, she wrote:
It’s so heartbreaking when something you’ve worked on gets ripped off and passed off as someone else’s work. I just happened to turn on the TV to watch the IIFA awards last night and I got the rude shock of having MY video played on the show without my permission!
To see the entire film fraternity tearing up after having watched the video that I made might have been the biggest privilege of my career, if it hadn’t been for the fact that they didn’t acknowledge me at all for having made it.
Arif wrote that this incident was an example of IIFA’s incompetence and lack of scruples. Sridevi deserved better, she added.
The IIFA was held in Thailand earlier this year. The tribute video was played then and was received very well by the audience. The ceremony was telecast this weekend and it was then that Saba found out about the plagiarism.
In light of Arif’s accusations, the organisers of the awards event have been strongly criticised by social media users. Arif’s friends have rallied behind her and have started a Twitter campaign to make sure she is credited for her work.
The IIFA is yet to respond to the allegations.
