Animation director Rafique Shaikh cries foul after producers of 'Delhi Safari' allegedly steal his limelight for the National Awards

It seems to be yet another case of filmmakers stealing credit from technicians. The animation director of Nikhil Advani's Delhi Safari, Rafique Shaikh claims that he was not informed about the film having won a National Award. Shaikh also alleges that the production house did not give him the due credit and owes him Rs 25 lakh for the services he has rendered.

While the National award committee had apparently sent a formal note to Krayon Pictures, inviting Shaikh to collect the award, the company allegedly requested the name of the awardee to be changed to the entire animation team in the company. Shaikh claims he was kept in the dark.


Rafique says, `The dissonance is obvious. While the original Best Animator's award is listed in my name, oddly the name attributed to the award at the ceremony was different. It is extremely disheartening and discouraging.`

However, the creative director of Krayon Pictures, Arpan Gaglani argues, `We worked as a team so it was not fair to give credit to only one person for the work. As far as informing Shaikh about the award is concerned, the list of National Award winners was announced two months back.`

According to Shaikh, he still hasn't been informed about the whereabouts of the prize money of R 1 lakh that was awarded to the team in Delhi.


While Gaglani refuses to comment on the money matters, Advani's phone remained switched off despite our repeated attempts to contact him.