‘Nekabborer Mahaproyan’ gets best National Film Award 2014 after ‘Brihonnola’ fiasco

The government has announced new national award winners after stripping Bangla film ‘Brihonnola’ of its honours.

The award for best film now goes to Masud Pathik’s ‘Nekabborer Mahaproyan’ for the year 2014, a government release said on Monday.

The best story and best dialogue awards will go to ‘Meghmallar’ by Zahidur Rahman Anjan, which is an adaptation of Akhtaruzzaman Elias's story, ‘Raincoat’.

Government-funded ‘Brihonnola’ had received the national awards in the best film, best story and best dialogue categories in 2014.

But the government cancelled the honours for the movie by Murad Parvez after allegations of plagiarism proved true.

After ‘Brihonnola’ was honoured at last year’s Jaipur International Film Festival, Indian writer Syed Mustafa Siraj’s family alleged that the film was based on his short story ‘Gachhta Bolechhilo’.

Director Murad Parvez had rubbished that allegation.

He had earlier credited Siraj and officially took rights of a story from the writer for his film ‘Chandragrahon’.

Later, West Bengal-based authors Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Debesh Roy wrote to Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, requesting the Bangladesh government to pay Siraj’s family Rs 150,000 as royalty for the story.

Syed Hasmat Jalal, secretary to the Syed Mustafa Siraj Academy, also wrote to Inu on the matter.

Following that, the information ministry formed a probe committee, headed by Bangladesh Betar Director General AKM Nesar Uddin Bhuiyan, to look into the issue.

On Saturday night, Information Secretary Martuza Ahmed told bdnews24.com that ‘Brihonnola’ had been stripped of the awards following the committee’s recommendations.