Aspirants starring Naveen Kasturia, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Abhilash Thapliyal, Namita Dubey and Sunny Hinduja, among others, has been making all the right kind of noises. Aspirants, the season finale of which just dropped on May 8, has managed to impress the fans. They have not stopped talking about how good the show is ever since its premiere. While the team is basking on the success of the show, Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer, Nilotpal Mrinal, has accused the makers of the show of plagiarism.

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According to Mrinal, TVF’s show Aspirants has been plagiarised from his book Dark Horse. The web series revolves around the lives of UPSC aspirants staying at Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar, and according to the renowned writer, the show’s creator, Arunabh Kumar, has copied his work.

Mrinal took to Facebook to share a photo of Arunabh Kumar and said, “Have shared Anurabh’s photo and details of the meeting with him to prove that he knew me as the writer of Dark Horse and was also aware of my interests to make a film based on the book.” He added that he will be taking legal action against TVF for copying his work without even crediting him for the same.

The writer went on to narrate how he and Kumar had met earlier when he had suggested that a movie or a web series could be made based on his book Dark Horse. He went on to reveal that the meeting went well and Kumar had even given a nod to work on it. “30 per cent of Aspirants is based on his book, but that was not a concern for the people sitting in Mumbai,” he added.

“People must have thought writers like Nilotpal come and go every day. Recently Satya Vyas’s Banaras Talkies was also stolen, what could these people do? I’ll fight for Dark Horse, if I lose it will be the loss of Dark Horse’s writer, but if I win, it will be a win for every struggling writer whose stolen stories have turned into hit films/ web series,” he concluded.

Responding to the allegations, TVF released an official statement, that read, “TVF is a creator-centric organization which has been nurturing writers since inception and takes their rights very seriously. A social media post has alleged that our show “Aspirants” has been inspired by another literary work. The company has received a notice in this regard and we will fully cooperate to investigate the matter.”