Kyoorius Creative Awards jury objects to Jindal Steel's "Steel of India” campaign

New Delhi: The Kyoorius Creative Awards, scheduled to take place on May 24 in Mumbai, last week kept “Jindal Steel—the Steel of India” campaign on hold following a BestMediaInfo.com report.

The campaign was entered by Amrish Kondurkar studio, a creative boutique started by Wieden + Kennedy’s former employee Amrish Kondurkar, and the production house Earlyman Films. 

BestMediaInfo.com on Wednesday reported that the Delhi High Court prima facie found the “Jindal Steel—the Steel of India” campaign an act of stealing the idea presented by its creative agency, Wieden + Kennedy.

The agency had moved the court after BJP leader and Kurukshetra Lok Sabha candidate Navin Jindal-owned Jindal Steel released a campaign earlier this year in March alleging copyright infringement and dishonouring the service agreement.

“The launch by the respondent (Jindal Steel) of the new campaign prima facie seemed to be substantially based on a similar theme, expressed through a montage of sequential images and videos stitched together by a soundscape of steel,” the Delhi High Court said in its April 24 order, adding that the choice of elements from the elements bucket provided by the petitioner (Wieden + Kennedy) to the respondent are substantially the same.

Wieden + Kennedy India had submitted evidence before the court to show how Jindal Steel used the same set of examples through a sequence of images.

BestMediaInfo.com is reproducing a few comparisons from the court order on an as-is basis:

In sync with the Delhi High Court order, the jury unanimously refused to judge the campaign as the matter was subjudice.

Sources present at the judging session of the Kyoorius Creative Awards told BestMediaInfo.com that the jurors were aghast to find the campaign as one of the contenders despite the fact that it was not withdrawn after the High Court judgment on April 24.

The entry deadline for the Kyoorius Creative Awards was April 19 but it allowed 15 days for the entrants to withdraw entries.

Industry sources told BestMediaInfo.com that Kondurkar turned freelancer after separating from W+K on sour terms and delivered the film on the basis of the idea presented to the client by his former employer.

“The stealing of ideas is not new to the industry but entering the stolen work and not withdrawing it despite the Delhi High Court verdict is nothing less than a brazen attempt of undermining the set standards,” said a jury member who did not want to be named.

“This piece of work will meet the same fate across all the awards if it is entered by Kondurkar,” the juror added when asked about other awards.

Sources told BestMediaInfo.com that the jurors were unanimous in their views that ideas are the biggest and only asset for creative agencies.

“Such acts give birth to an ugly culture and it should be discouraged for the sake of industry. They should be publicly shamed as we as an industry cannot accept such ridiculous behaviour now or ever in the future,” sources told BestMediaInfo.com quoting jurors.

“Kondurkar was perhaps trying to legitimise by entering the stolen work despite the Delhi High Court’s observation in its verdict but it was good to see Kyoorius jury uniting and standing for what is right for the industry as they decided to keep all the entries of Jindal Steel campaign across categories on hold,” the sources added.