'Brihonnola' was plagiarized, loses national award

The government has cancelled three national awards of Murad Parvez's movie 'Brihonnola' after finding the allegation of plagiarism in its making to be true.
Since the movie received national award, allegations of plagiarism against 'Brihonnola' was being charged. The first allegation was reported in TOI last year. Fresh charges of plagiarism were leveled by composer Debajyoti Mishra against a song 'Piya tor kiser Aviman' from the same film.
In September last year, legendary author Syed Mustafa Siraj's elder son Abhijit Siraj has alleged that the Bangaldeshi director had plagiarized his father's story titled 'Gaachta Bolechilo'. The director, however, had insisted that his film was based on a self-written story titled 'The Poisoning Sap'.
Siraj's 'Gaachta Bolechhilo', which was later translated in English as 'Die, said the Tree', is the story of some myths surrounding a tree in a village. The tree, which is believed to be gifted with strange powers, becomes the pivotal metaphor in the story that explores the psyche of villagers plagued by superstition.
'Brihonnola' is a tale of the goodness inherent in human nature prevailing over religious prejudice and racial dogmatism. The film, starring Ferdous Ahmed, Sohana Saba, Azad Abul Kalam and Jhuna Choudhury, is set in a village where everything goes well for ages till an ancient banyan tree becomes the focal point of dispute between the two sections of the village community.
West Bengal-based authors Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Debesh Roy had written to Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu asking the government to pay Rs 150,000 to the family of Siraj as royalty for the story. Now after close investigation, the government finds the allegation that the germ of 'Brihonnola' is from Syed Mustafa Siraj's short story 'Gachhta Bolechhilo' is true and decided to strip of the awards following recommendations made by the committee that investigated the allegation, Information Secretary Martuza Ahmed confirmed on Saturday. Government-funded 'Brihonnola' received the national awards for best movie, best story and best dialogue categories in 2014.