The founder talked about how the idea of Humans of Bombay came about.
Humans of Bombay founder Karishma Mehta is at the centre of a controversy after her storytelling platform filed a case against People of India (POI) for alleged copyright infringement of its content. Now, an old video of Ms Mehta talking about her organisation has gone viral on the internet. In the video, the founder talked about how the idea of Humans of Bombay came about.
In the video, she said that the idea came "out of the blue" and it just clicked for her. She said, "Completely randomly and out of the blue, I stumbled upon the idea of Humans of Bombay and I started it. And it clicked. That period was a high of its own to start something new."
She also talked about her "struggles". She revealed how the organisation didn't make any money for the first three years and she was dependent on pocket money from her parents.
Ms Mehta is getting slammed on the internet after Brandon Stanton, the creator of Humans of New York (HONY), posted a note on X (previously known as Twitter) to express his perspective on the situation. Brandon mentioned how Humans of Bombay (HOB) had apparently drawn inspiration from HONY without encountering legal challenges. Mr Stanton also mentioned his willingness to forgive the appropriation in the past but questioned the decision to file suits against other platforms.
See the viral video here:
Since being posted, the video has gathered nearly 5 lakh views on X. Social media users slammed Ms Mehta for suing People of India.
Commenting on the video, a user wrote, "Randomly out of the blue I think about making kids characters, one would be a mouse and the other a duck ... maybe call it Dickey and Monald."
"Yeah, I think I have heard similar reasoning from Anu Malik ji too," another user joked.
"When you tell a lie hundreds of times, it doesn't classify as a lie anymore," the third user wrote.
"The Categorical Influencer. Unoriginal. Petty and never give credit to those who deserve it. And yes, they have immense struggle," the fourth user wrote.
"And the concept and the name turned out to be an exact replica of Humans of New York...damn! What a delicious coincidence," the fifth user wrote.
According to the plea, People of India has allegedly violated copyright by using films from Humans of Bombay's Instagram account and YouTube channel without permission. Additionally, it claimed that People of India has also copied HOB's unique storytelling format without authorisation.