A
abujagirl
Guest
Nollywood director, Niyi Akinmolayan has been accused of intellectual theft by Former Inspiration FM Presenter, Wana Udobang.
Udobang is claiming that Akinmolayan stole his concept 'Room 313', and made it into a short film titled 'Room 315'.
Wana claims Room 315, inspired by a script written by a 21-year-old Port-Harcourt native named Abosi Ogba, has a similar plot, and name, to her experimental series about people who have experienced trauma undergoing therapy, which has been available for viewing since 2015.
Akinmolayan and his team have however issued a statement denying the allegation.
See statement below:
‘A couple of months ago, niyiakinmolayan.com started the LET’S MAKE A MOVIE contest to provide an avenue for up and coming actors, screenwriters and potential film crew members to develop their craft through a series of free educational modules.
The first step in our LET’S MAKE A MOVIE project was to call for scripts. We were inundated with over 125 submissions and out of those, we selected twenty. Out of those twenty we selected three and left the choice to the blog readers; afterall, this movie was for and by them. The top three were PASTORPRENUER, ROOM 315 and THE SALON. After over eight hundred votes cast, Room 315 was selected by the public. The issue of mental health which the film addresses resonated with the readers. And thus, the journey to bringing the film to a reality began.
We were very fortunate to receive support from a lot of people who heard about the blog and wanted to help out since none of this was for profit. Slowly the production began to take shape, volunteers trooped in from the blog to take part in everything from set design, to costume, makeup, production management and even cast including Bimbo Manuel and Tina Mba. Please find below the links indicating the progress of project.
We trudged along slowly and steadily until a few days ago when our attention was called to a production that shares some similarities with a production called Rom 313.
Naturally, we take allegations of plagiarism seriously and as such we reached out to the writer to investigate the claims. The writer says that he did not lift the idea from the Room 313 series.
Out of 125 submissions, Abosi Ogba’s 10-page screenplay for Room 315 ultimately won the contest. We immediately began pre-production for a 22nd October 2016 shoot so this news of story theft, days before principal photography, was disorienting.
Shock understates how we feel about the claim that Room 315, the short movie project written by Abosi Ogba and currently in pre-production by Anthill, was plagiarized from Room 313, an existing web series, by Wana Udobang.
In our opinion, there are significant differences between the two projects. Room 315 is a psychological drama about a psychiatrist and his odd patients’ whose stories weave together into a startling revelation, revealing life’s interesting connections. Wana Udobang’s Room 313 is a series in which each episode features a monologue about their varied life experiences. While the titles – Room 315 and Room 313 – are similar, Abosi used his birthday, 31st of May, as the number of his character’s office, Room 315, in his screenplay. He shared this in a facebook live video over a month ago:
Based on these clear differences, we believe that the allegation of plagiarism leveled against Abosi Ogba are unfounded. We have attached the script of Room 315. A simple read of the script and perusal of Wana’s show will prove our stance.
PS: Our volunteer media partners include ChannelsTV, PulseNG, Aware Africa (in relation to mental health awareness) and TNS are contributing for free. We can empower a lot of people together and make history. That’s my vision for the blog.
Thank you.’
Udobang is claiming that Akinmolayan stole his concept 'Room 313', and made it into a short film titled 'Room 315'.
Wana claims Room 315, inspired by a script written by a 21-year-old Port-Harcourt native named Abosi Ogba, has a similar plot, and name, to her experimental series about people who have experienced trauma undergoing therapy, which has been available for viewing since 2015.
Akinmolayan and his team have however issued a statement denying the allegation.
See statement below:
‘A couple of months ago, niyiakinmolayan.com started the LET’S MAKE A MOVIE contest to provide an avenue for up and coming actors, screenwriters and potential film crew members to develop their craft through a series of free educational modules.
The first step in our LET’S MAKE A MOVIE project was to call for scripts. We were inundated with over 125 submissions and out of those, we selected twenty. Out of those twenty we selected three and left the choice to the blog readers; afterall, this movie was for and by them. The top three were PASTORPRENUER, ROOM 315 and THE SALON. After over eight hundred votes cast, Room 315 was selected by the public. The issue of mental health which the film addresses resonated with the readers. And thus, the journey to bringing the film to a reality began.
We were very fortunate to receive support from a lot of people who heard about the blog and wanted to help out since none of this was for profit. Slowly the production began to take shape, volunteers trooped in from the blog to take part in everything from set design, to costume, makeup, production management and even cast including Bimbo Manuel and Tina Mba. Please find below the links indicating the progress of project.
We trudged along slowly and steadily until a few days ago when our attention was called to a production that shares some similarities with a production called Rom 313.
Naturally, we take allegations of plagiarism seriously and as such we reached out to the writer to investigate the claims. The writer says that he did not lift the idea from the Room 313 series.
Out of 125 submissions, Abosi Ogba’s 10-page screenplay for Room 315 ultimately won the contest. We immediately began pre-production for a 22nd October 2016 shoot so this news of story theft, days before principal photography, was disorienting.
Shock understates how we feel about the claim that Room 315, the short movie project written by Abosi Ogba and currently in pre-production by Anthill, was plagiarized from Room 313, an existing web series, by Wana Udobang.
In our opinion, there are significant differences between the two projects. Room 315 is a psychological drama about a psychiatrist and his odd patients’ whose stories weave together into a startling revelation, revealing life’s interesting connections. Wana Udobang’s Room 313 is a series in which each episode features a monologue about their varied life experiences. While the titles – Room 315 and Room 313 – are similar, Abosi used his birthday, 31st of May, as the number of his character’s office, Room 315, in his screenplay. He shared this in a facebook live video over a month ago:
Based on these clear differences, we believe that the allegation of plagiarism leveled against Abosi Ogba are unfounded. We have attached the script of Room 315. A simple read of the script and perusal of Wana’s show will prove our stance.
PS: Our volunteer media partners include ChannelsTV, PulseNG, Aware Africa (in relation to mental health awareness) and TNS are contributing for free. We can empower a lot of people together and make history. That’s my vision for the blog.
Thank you.’
