THE MOVIE CITY BAKERY HAS BEEN INFRINGED BY THE MAKERS OF MASKA, WAILS ALKA SADALKAR, DIRECTOR CITY BAKERY

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By Team Bollyy
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THE MOVIE CITY BAKERY HAS BEEN INFRINGED BY THE MAKERS OF MASKA, WAILS ALKA SADALKAR, DIRECTOR CITY BAKERY

Jyothi Venkatesh

The film City Bakery is a long short film of 49 minutes and 11 seconds. It is a quirky emotional drama movie showing Parsi family and their family food business legacy. The movie basically revolves around the Parsi Bakery, Parsi culture and cuisine/baking and the decision of a Parsi boy (Lead Protagonist) who is going through inner turmoil with life’s choices/questions at a pivotal age. In the end he finds the way that was meant for him.

The filmmaker has drawn this from her personal experience where she had to choose between two paths without having any knowledge of where each path will lead me and eventually followed my true calling of making films. This film has been made in a unique manner and with various unique elements. Having seen various films in which Parsi people and Parsi culture have been shown but not been the presented as the core plot where the Parsi community is the main focus which lead to the amalgamation of two thoughts of inner turmoil on the cross roads of like with the filmmakers research on Parsi culture, food and other aspects of the Parsi community for the films.

 Pune based Alka Sadalkar started getting calls and text messages from friends and family whether she had seen the new movie Maska on Netflix released as on original film because they all found similarities to Alka’s long short movie City Bakery which was already been screened in September 2017. On the same day my Cinematographer Deep Pal and my assistant director intimated me with the same news.When I saw Maska on Netflix which portrayed as an ORIGINAL film, I was shell shocked and heart broken to find out that how similar Maska movie is to my movie “City Bakery”.

Theme, story-line, concept, plot, expression and treatment of both the films are similar.Both have a family legacy of a Parsi food business, Parsi culture and cuisine and the protagonist who is going through inner turmoil with his future career and life decisions and seeks advice from the elderly male protagonist in both the films. The mother and the son have an estranged relationship in both films.

Says Alka Sadalkar, “Theme, story-line, concept, plot, expression and treatment of both Maska and City Bakery are similar.Both films have a family legacy of a Parsi food business, Parsi culture and cuisine and the protagonist who is going through inner turmoil with his future career and life decisions and seeks advise from the elderly male protagonist in both the films. The flow and treatment in both the films are similar as to Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 and  the basic crux of both the films are the same hence while the similarities are a lot to summarise .The treatment of characters in both the films are similar. Out of 20 scenes of City Bakery in total, as many as 17scenes in Maska are similar.There are visual similarities throughout the movie The language used in both the film is similar.Both the films have similar endings.Any layman who watches both the films will definitely relate to the fact that  both the films are similar.

Alka Sadalkar adds, “The difference between both the films is that Maska is a large feature film of 111 minutes starring established actors including Ma nisha Koirala and the film is airing on a large Platform like Netflix whereas my film City Bakery is an independent long short film of 49 minutes and 11seconds, with very limited budget, equipment, starring all new authentic Parsi actors. It cannot be ignored that the senior male lead actor of my film City Bakery has acted and been given credits as an actor in Maska also.

Since Alka Sadalkar doesn’t know any of the makers of film Maska and is unfamiliar and not at all acquainted with too many people in the Indian film industry, she was advised to seek legal help immediately who could guide her properly. For proper guidance she reached out to Advocate Saveena Bedi Sachar from Law hive Associates for legal assistance. After the discussion, they decided to send Cease and Desist notice to the makers of Maska film that is the platform and the actor that is common in both films and the producers  to know the truth because we agreed that there is a lockdown so we should not unnecessarily burden the judiciary in these hard times but when the platform failed to substantiate their answers even after approximately 2 weeks and also the actor and the producers failed to give any answer.

 Alka says “We were left with no option and forced to go to the court for justice.” As of now, the case is subjudice in the Hon'ble Bombay High Court hence can't comment much but the court has already asked the parties to the Suit to give a reply after recording the statement made by them in the court. Alka Sadalkar has always had complete respect, faith and trust in the judicial system in the country and firmly believes that the Hon'ble Bombay High Court will help her get justice.Awaiting the court verdict in her fav our, Alka Sadalkar, filmmaker of ‘The City Bakery’ exults in exasperation. "After watching the movie Maska on Netflix which was portrayed as an original film, I was shocked and heart broken to find out that how similar Maska movie was to my movie “City Bakery”

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