Hey, that's my concept!

After films and music, the concept of stealing someone else's story has reached the otherwise clean and professional field of television also. Even though there have been cases in the past when writers and producers have blamed their rivals for stealing their concepts and stories, its only the recent controversy surrounding Zee TV's latest offering Betiyann which have fuelled this fire once again.

According to the reports, the original concepts of Betiyann belonged to the writer Rekha Modi which she claims to have even registered under her name. But Zee TV, and particularly producer Dheeraj Kumar of Creative Eye have another story to tell. As per Kumar, the concept belonged to him and he just hired Rekha to develop it further. Whatever the case may be, the fact remains the same that this controversy has opened the Pandora box of blaming and counter blaming amongst TV writers who so far have preferred to keep quiet even though they felt cheated everytime someone stole their concepts.

"This is nothing new in television. Everyday some or the other writer's concept is stolen, but due to the lack of a proper body to represent their interests, writers haven't been able to register their grievances," comments an industry veteran who doesn't wish to be named. "Either their concepts are flicked straightaway and made into a new show, or their original story is used as a track in some existing serial."

The question which arises is – What is the reason behind writers not raising their voice against plagiarism? "They always want to, but who has the time to go through all the legal hassles which comes with raising the voice," comments writer Kamlesh Singh who has the credit of writing serials like Kumkum, Kammal and Kuchh Jhuki Palkein. "And even the law of copyrighting in our country is so flexible; it becomes almost impossible to prove if you are the first one to think of a particular concept."

And if that's not enough, most of the writers are not so well-off as to sue someone and afford all the legal expenses. That explains the reason why when there are so many cases of concept-lifting; there is not a single person to raise a voice against it. And not only that, most of the writers are not ready to raise their voices for the fear of spoiling their relations in the market. Even the Writer's Association, which has been formed in order to protect a writer's right; hasn't been able to do something in the cases of concept being stolen.

"What can we do? Our law says that if every fourth scene is not same as in the registered script, it cannot be termed as plagiarism," says an association official on the condition of anonymity. He further adds that the Writer's Association has just become a matter of formality.

Few cases of concept lifting:

Kanhaiya: About four years back, Zee TV had announced a serial called Kanhaiya which was finally taken off air following a court battle between the channel and the production house Cinevistaas Ltd. According to the producer Sunil Mehta, Kanhaiya was their concept which the channel had stolen and was trying to make it with some other producer. The case made the relationship between the channel and the production house very sour and they patched up only after three years when they made another serial Paalkhi together.

Dulhan: The latest offering from Zee TV is again said to be lifted from someone else's concept. Apparently, singer-turned-producer Ravindra Jain's company had submitted the concept to the channel, but they were shocked to see it being made by someone else. The channel, on the other hand maintains that the concept is their original and not stolen from someone else.

Time Bomb: The costliest television serial ever made in the history of Indian television. This serial was dragged to the court by Fox TV which claimed that the Time Bomb is copy of their popular format 24. After a long court battle, finally Time Bomb was given a green signal and finally saw the light of the day.

(Sampurn)