Nepalese filmmaker Aneel Neupane held a press conference to bring in light the latest update regarding the BOB-Kriti controversy at Jhamsikhel on Sunday.

 In the light of recent events, Aneel, through his Indian advocate Amulya Dhingra has sent a legal notice to Bollywood director Shirish Kunder, his Production house Indie Muviz and Actor Manoj Bajpayee on Friday demanding a compensation package of IRs 2.5 million (Rs 4 million) for defamation.

‘I have enough evidences to back my claims. So, definitely the truth will come out,’ Neupane said during the press meet. He further added that his team has been trying to contact Vimeo officials regarding the allegations made by Kunder about the manipulation in the upload date of BOB.

Few days after the removal of the films, the makers of Kriti had held a press conference regarding the BOB-Kriti controversy and accused Neupane of manipulating Vimeo video upload date.

YouTube had removed short films- Kriti, due to a copyright claim by Nepali filmmaker Aneel Neupane, and Neupane’s BOB was taken down after a counter copyright claim by Abhayan and Singh of Indie Muviz.

Speaking at the Press Conference, actor Manoj Bajpayee had said, ‘The scripting has been done in front of me. We worked really hard for the film. And Shirish is being victimised for "no fault of his" by an ‘utterly ambitious crook’.

The BOB-Kriti controversy began when Neupane published a statement on Facebook in which he stated that Kunder, who is married to Bollywood director Farah Khan, “practically stole the plot” of his film BOB for his short Kriti.

In response, Kunder had filed a legal notice against Neupane and sought a written apology on 27^th July over email.

Neupane has maintained that BOB was completed in October, 2015 after which he uploaded it on the video sharing site Vimeo as a private video to share with his close friends. The film was subsequently released on YouTube on May 12, 2016.

Kunder, in his defence said, “I’m aware that posts online are claiming that my short film Kriti has some resemblances with a Nepali film by a completely unknown maker. But the fact is this film was uploaded on YouTube on May 12, while my film was shot and ready in February. The story was locked last year itself so unless I am a time traveller, it is impossible that I copied this film.”

Nepali Tweeps and Facebook users have been trending #KritiStoleBob in the social media sites for over a week now. Some users have claimed that even the poster of Kriti was ‘inspired’ by a Japanese movie poster. Nepali fans have also initiated a petition demanding Kunder withdraw his legal notice against Neupane.

This is presumably the first time news regarding a Bollywood mainstream film director copying a Nepali film has garnered attention in Nepali, international and social media.