Netflix is facing legal charges over its hit Turkish series “The Gift” by prominent Turkish author, Buket Uzuner. Uzuner laid claims to the characters on the show, saying that the streaming service copied them without her permission.
This development comes just after the second season of Atiye (The Gift) dropped on Netflix.
The Gift
Beren Sarat is a renowned Turkish actress who plays the lead in the show. She is well known in Pakistan as well for her roles in Turkish series Ishq e Mamnoon and Kosum Sultan.
Saat, who is one of Turkey’s highest-paid stars, plays a young Istanbul artist named Atiye. Her life changes when she encounters an archaeologist over the discovery of an ancient site.
The story of the series is based around a discovery that Atiye makes at the site of Göbeklitepe, the world’s first temple which dates back to 10,000 B.C., where secrets of her past are hidden.
Buket Uzuner has filed a lawsuit in Istanbul court. She claims the characters in Atiye were used without permission from her novel “Toprak” in the “Adventures of Defne Kaman” series. She alleges that it has been plagiarized without a contract.
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According to reports, the novelist is seeking an order to stop the broadcast of the series in the petition submitted to the court, and a total of 51,000 Turkish Liras ($6,600) compensation with the legal interest has also been requested from the producer’s company and Netflix.
It doesn’t stop there. Uzuner revealed that a producer had called her and said he wanted to shoot a Netflix series with a female character like Defne Kaman, adding that she spoke to the producer for eight months.
“When I watched the series, I saw that the characters in the book were copied exactly,” she said.
“We have to fight for theft of ideas just as we fight for freedom of thought,” Uzuner added.
