Jami Mahmood reacts to plagiarism allegations regarding Jugnu

Jami Mahmood released the teaser of Jugnu last week and since then it has been caught in a plagiarism controversy. Lahore-based filmmaker Ahmad Baig stated in a Facebook post that there were similarities between Jugnu and the thesis film he made at NCA in 2015.

“Three years ago at NCA I made a film “Ibbu ki Eid” with an original idea. Yesterday I saw a teaser of Jugnu Movie which had disturbingly similar visuals and feel,” he wrote.

Speaking with a leading daily, Jugnu producer Jami dismissed the plagiarism allegation: “Ahmad says that the trailer of his film is similar to Jugnu’s. But then he has re-edited his trailer to match ours. His original trailer was something else.”

He also added that Jugnu is his own story. “In my childhood, I ran away with our sacrificial goat before Eid. Because we fell in love with the bakra. There are so many videos on YouTube about children getting attached to their bakras and running away with them. This was a very old story that I gave to [Jugnu director] Ali Abbas Naqvi. It’s a Bakra Eid story about a child and his goat. What happens after is key. We don’t know what happens in [Ahmad’s] film, the film doesn’t exist outside.”

“He thinks I was on his thesis jury at the NCA. But I was not on the panel that year and I’ve never seen his film,” he concluded clarifying further.

Jami was also accused of threatening NCA.

However, Jami says that he is working with NCA to clear the plagiarism charges. He also stated to a leading daily, how Ahmed’s film did not exist online or otherwise on any public platform which would have enabled him or his team to see it and copy the idea. Jami also mentioned Ahmed had a misunderstanding about his presence at the NCA jury in 2015, whereas this was never the case.