How a man, busted for fabricating entries on IMDb, exposes the entertainment industry’s struggle to find a safe home for credits
Jairaj Singh and Arnab Ganguly (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 12, 2020_

Till a few weeks ago, he was a legend the film industry had failed to acknowledge. On IMDb — the largest and most popular TV and movie database on the internet — his feats were going spectacularly unparalleled, and there for all to see. Even Satyajit Ray — whom Akira Kurosawa hailed as a ‘giant’ — paled in comparison to his filmmaking prowess, if you compared the credits listed on their respective profile pages. The 18-year-old student from Navi Mumbai, who was running the page with his own name, claimed not only to be an actor and director, but also to have experience in animation, costume design, editing, stunts, visual effects and scriptwriting, among other things.

On June 23, screenwriter and poet Varun Grover exposed the IMDb account. He took to social media when he saw an ‘Abhishek Chaudhary’ listed as one of the writers of Sacred Games, the show Grover had developed from Vikram Chandra’s 2006 novel by the same name. Upon inspecting the profile page on the website, he found that this person also claimed to have played the role of a newborn in Good Newwz (2019) and a father in Badhaai Ho (2018), besides other stuff. “The guy is a bit of a credit-vandal. A normal talent would have credits in 4 or 5 different fields (writer, director etc). A genius like Mr Ray has credits under 14 categories. Our maestro ‘Abhishek’ has 30+ varied talents,” Grover wrote in a Twitter thread. He also questioned IMDb’s “strict monitoring and verification process”, which had allowed something like this to pass.

IMDb was quick to follow up as the posts went viral, and instantly wiped out almost all the fake credits on Chaudhary’s page, without acknowledging the oversight. It left behind the entries of two films, one genuine and one fake: Brazen Epiphany, which credits Chaudhary as an actor, and Chosen Few, a TVF short, which credits him as playing the role of a policeman. Within a week of the issue coming to light, a man claiming to be Abhishek Chaudhary messaged Grover on Instagram and confessed that he was behind the IMDb profile — and proved it by making fresh edits on the page. Chaudhary told Grover that IMDb had barred him from creating more fake entries, and then tried to justify himself.

“My initial impression, on discovering the fake credits on IMDb, was that he was misusing the mutual trust platform,” Grover tells Mirror. “But after interacting with him, I figured he has some kind of reasoning behind it. He thinks of himself as some sort of a vigilante, exposing loopholes in a system. Also, the joy of cheap thrills is difficult to resist. So I believe it’s a mix of everything.”

The (con) artist
On his LinkedIn page, Chaudhary introduces himself as a “pseudo-introvert, a web developer and a maker”. He also says he’s the “Chief Executive Officer of The Abbie”, which does not appear to be an organisation, and has only one follower on its page.

A second year student of computer engineering at an institute in Vashi, Chaudhary is not a self-avowed film buff but is “open to making films” once he gets his engineering degree. Last year, he and his friends took part in a contest organised by the India Film Project, where each team was given a theme and 50 hours to make a film. They made Brazen Epiphany, a 5.26-minute audio film about a journalist who is interviewed after winning an award. The film was uploaded on YouTube on April 11, and has had 45 views. “I knew my film was not going to win, but I wanted to promote it. My first step was to create an IMDb page,” Chaudhary tells Mirror. “I had to fill up a long form, which took two days to get approved. This left me wondering whether IMDb was actually verifying all the information that it was being fed.”

At first, Chaudhary claims, he would spend quality time on the crowd-sourced website by contributing genuine entries, like adding missing plot details and fixing the release date of a film. It was only once he discovered the existence of a loophole, and realised how easy it was to fabricate credits, that he started misusing the website. “I was jealous of not being famous,” says Chaudhary, who created his first fake entry in March by calling himself a comic who was a part of Comicstaan, the stand-up comedy reality show. “I was just eager for fame. At the time, Sacred Games was trending. I thought that if I add my name to it as a writer, people might recognise me.”

While Chaudhary found it easy to create such fake entries, Pooja Tolani (left) — a writer who has actually worked on two episodes in the second season of Sacred Games with Grover — had to struggle to make even a legit entry. She was asked by IMDb to send a screenshot of her name in the end credits, and it took her, in all, almost three months to get the credit.

“At first, I did not pay much attention to adding my name to the show’s credit list. My colleagues had added their names and it had been a very simple process for them,” says Tolani. “I tried in December once, but couldn’t do it. Later, I learnt it had been declined because the information could not be verified. In February, I tried several times, and every time it said it could not be verified. I was then asked to submit evidence. I wrote on the IMDb website that I was one of the co-writers, and mentioned the two episodes that I had worked on, and also provided the links. It was still declined.”

IMDb, on its site, maintains that for users to get credit they “need to have at least one pre-existing credited entry in the database”. It says that it relies on end credits because “these days, end credits are much more comprehensive and most people who contribute eligible work, receive a credit”. Even though it operates as a crowd-sourced website like Wikipedia, on its own Wiki page, IMDb makes a distinction about how it is different by stating that “contributors cannot add, delete, or modify the data or text on impulse, and the manipulation of data is controlled by IMDb technology and salaried staff”.

When Mirror reached out to IMDb to ask how Chaudhary managed to fabricate credits while Tolani had to struggle to get her due, a spokesperson responded by sharing the information that’s already on the website. “The information in IMDb comes from various sources. While we actively gather information from and verify items with studios and filmmakers, the bulk of our information is submitted by people in the industry and visitors to our site,” reads the statement. “Our sources of information include, but are not limited to, on-screen credits, press kits, official bios, autobiographies, and interviews. Given the sheer volume and the nature of the information we list, occasional mistakes are inevitable and, when spotted/reported, they are promptly verified and fixed.” The website evaded all questions pertaining to the specifics of the case.

A flawed system
On July 8, filmmaker Apurva Asrani tweeted how his name, as co-writer of the legal drama Shahid (2013), “miraculously popped back” on IMDb after he wrote a blog, despite three years of chasing the website to include it. “Credits on IMDb should exactly reflect those that appeared on the film, but that’s not always the case,” says Asrani. “In the case of Shahid, Hansal Mehta and I are mentioned as additional screenplay writers in the film’s opening credits. We both even shared a screenwriting award with the film’s main writer, but for the last three years, my name and a mention of the award has been missing from IMDb. After I blogged about it, someone was able to edit the page and attach proof of my name in the opening credits. Now it is there, but I don’t know for how long.”

For most people in the entertainment industry — especially those still trying to establish themselves — IMDb is the go-to site. Filmmaker Bejoy Nambiar says that in recent years, an IMDb profile has become a “calling card”, an online resume, for people to verify and crosscheck credentials. It also helps actors, writers and tech crew to negotiate better deals. The loopholes in the system have, however, given rise to fraudsters, both online and offline. Last year Gaurav P Singh, an assistant director, had to conduct a sting operation to nab a man, his namesake, who was using his IMDb profile to get work. “I had to make him apologize to me on camera and write to all the production houses he had been doing the rounds of, seeking work by posing as me,” he says. “The funny thing is that he knew everything about me and my work and, during the first quarter of the meeting, tried very hard to convince me that he was me.”

Such incidents expose a major faultline in an industry which refuses to be transparent about giving credit to people. Other than the end credits of a film or a TV show, there is no way for people — involved in the larger creative process — to be formally acknowledged for their contribution. If production houses do create an official webpage, including all the credits, it is usually a transient exercise. IMDb is, arguably, the only database that one can refer to for information long after a project is done. So correct and honest representation is crucial.

Grover, like many people in the industry, feels the onus should also lie with production houses to ensure proper credits go on IMDb, but adds, “we are talking about an industry with no structure, no strict labour laws, no unity, and, in most of the cases, [sees] rampant exploitation”. As long as that continues, fraudsters and vandals will also continue to thrive.


The fake credits on the page (before IMDb removed them)

Swara Bhasker calls out the hypocrisy of the Indian audience as her latest show about a woman owning her sexuality faces flak
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; July 7, 2020)

Swara Bhasker's latest offering Rasbhari has been in the news all week. The Amazon Prime Video series, which has Bhasker play a teacher whose teenage student becomes obsessed with her, has been slammed for its risqué content. The actor admits she too had her share of doubts when the project came her way. "Since it deals with adolescent sexuality and infatuation, the show depends heavily on the writing. The reference point was Malena [2000], but this show has a comic take. Malena was quite sexually explicit, so I asked for a full script. Upon reading it, I realised this show goes beyond adolescent sexuality and highlights the prejudices of repressed societies. It shows how on one hand, people lust after women, but on the other hand, female sexuality is equally vilified," says Bhasker.

The explicit display of sexuality hasn't gone down well with many, with a section of netizens terming it "soft porn". But she reasons it was necessary to tell the story from a male gaze. "The story is a young boy's perspective and thus told from a male gaze to highlight the blatant objectification of women. The show is not a mere raunchy comedy and Nikhil Bhatt [director] created the climax in such a way that Rasbhari is a catalyst in creating a better man of its adolescent hero. It's not an easy show to watch, especially for those who are conservative. The show holds a mirror to all of us. But isn't that the point of art?"

Bhasker believes that the outright rejection of the series is yet another instance of our society's double standards. She argues that while the Indian audience is encouraging of thought-provoking shows from the West, it cannot stomach bold content that emerges from our backyard. Highlighting the hypocrisy further, she states, "Rape is fetishised on screen and depicted rather insensitively in most cases, but, that doesn't bother us. We are comfortable watching women being violated, but when we see Rasbhari, we squirm. The story of Anaarkali Of Aarah [2017] is easier to digest because a wronged woman is more palatable to Indian sensibilities. Shanu [her character in Rasbhari] is in a more powerful position socially, and Rasbhari [her alter ego] is unabashed about her sexuality. She is a courtesan figure who is not a victim, but revels in every shade of her existence."

One of the few vocal artistes in Bollywood, the actor has often bravely spoken against the establishment. While she takes the online trolling with a pinch of salt, Bhasker is not amused that the show is being targeted because of her political stance. "The bloodbath is relentless. The IMDb ratings have dropped. This has happened to Thappad and Pataal Lok, too. I am happy to debate well-intentioned criticism, but the responses from trolls are simply, 'Haww ji ye kaise dikha diya?' Adolescent sexuality is a real thing. People who haven't even watched the show are criticising it; they are doing so because they don't like me. Perhaps that's the path I have chosen by not being silent. It's a braver and harder path to express dissent. This is precisely why Bollywood doesn't speak up; stars know their ideology could affect their work."