Apr 10, 2025 10:27 AM IST
An artist has claimed that the recent episode of CID features clips from his YouTube video, including artwork that he created, used without permission.
The cult crime show CID is back in the news these days for a plot twist that nobody saw coming. ACP Pradyuman, the show’s protagonist since its launch in 1998, has apparently been killed off on screen. Even as the shocker is generating buzz, the show has landed in some controversy, with one of the recent episodes featuring content that seems not original. An artist has now taken to Instagram to highlight how the show used his YouTube videos to show some graffiti on the show. (Also read: Internet divided over ‘young’ Parth Samthaan replacing Shivaji Satam on CID: ‘Why can’t they just promote Abhijeet?’)
CID episode features content from YouTube video
The ongoing arc on CID sees the team fighting criminal mastermind Barbosa (Tigmanshu Dhulia), who is also behind the bombing that killed ACP Pradyuman (Shivaji Satam). The episode titled The Aftermath, which opens with the death of the ACP, sees the team—including Daya and Abhijeet—investigating a series of mysterious graffiti around Mumbai. The graffiti includes images of Jared Leto’s Joker and Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk.
On Monday, Mumbai-based graffiti artist Mooz Graffiti took to his Instagram to share the clip from the show and point out that not only has CID used his work but also lifted the artwork from YouTube videos, which makes it copyright infringement.
The video opens with the scene from CID, followed by Mooz showing his original artwork, after which he says to the camera in Hindi, “Initially, I was excited because we have all watched CID since childhood and getting your artwork featured in it is a good thing. But it’s not just me, Zake, Elmart and a lot of other people’s artwork has been featured here. But the funny part is that instead of going out on the street and shooting the artwork or hiring a person to show the vandalism, you chose to take it from a YouTube video. I found that funny.”
Mooz captioned the video, “Sala ye Barbosa ne credit le liya! (Barboasa took all the credit)Woke up to this! CID showing our artworks in their recent episode ‘the aftermath’ where the graffiti seems to be taken from YouTube videos! That’s quite funny!!”
The internet reacts
In the comments section, many pointed out that it was an interesting choice for CID makers to lift the graffiti from YouTube when the real artwork is in public domain on the streets. Many advised the artist to sue the makers and the channel. One comment read, “Bro SUE THEM! In logo ka content use karo to turant copyright strike marte hai (If we use their content, they send copyright strikes). Good chance to teach’em a lesson.” One comment pointed out the irony of a show featuring a law enforcement agency ‘stealing’ content. “Wow! CID wale bhi crime kar sakte hai pehli bar pata chala (I realised that CID guys also do crime),” read the comment.
CID is created by BP Singh and produced by him and Pradeep Uppoor. The show airs on Sony TV and also streams on SonyLIV and Netflix. So far, the creators or the channel have not addressed the controversy.
