#trending: BTS fans accuse Bangladeshi artistes of plagiarising South Korean band leader RM’s Wild Flower music video

SINGAPORE — Fans of South Korean mega boy band BTS are up in arms over a new music video from Bangladesh that they believe plagiarised a music video by group leader RM.

The K-pop group’s fandom, known as Army, is accusing Bangladeshi singers Shusmita Anis and Tahsan Khan of blatantly copying multiple scenes from RM’s Wild Flower music video in their music video for the song Harai Bohodur.

The video for Harai Bohodur was released on Shusmita Anis’ YouTube channel last Thursday (Feb 9) and it did not take long for Army members to notice striking similarities between the two music videos.

In addition to scenes featuring golden fireworks at the beginning of both videos, fans pointed out that much like RM, Tahsan Khan was also filmed standing and walking through various natural landscapes throughout the Bengali music video.

Perhaps the most notable similarity, however, are the scenes where RM and Tahsan Khan both sing emotively while standing in the middle of a computer-generated storm in their respective videos.

Coincidence? Probably not. 

Following the outcry, the team behind Shusmita Anis seemed to acknowledge the similarities between the music videos by mentioning RM’s Wild Flower as the “concept inspiration” under the song’s list of credits on YouTube.

However, that did little to appease the anger of fans of BTS and RM, whose real name is Kim Nam-joon.

Many online users pointed out that merely calling RM’s video, which was released on Dec 2 last year, an “inspiration” instead of admitting and apologising for allegedly copying its visual concept was a “disgraceful” and “unprofessional” move.

Fans have called for the music video to be reported for alleged copyright infringement on YouTube and have even prepared an email template for people who may want to write to BTS' management agencies, BigHit Music and Hybe, to urge them to take action on the matter.

Army members were also upset as they felt that the Bengali music video had ripped off years of hard work put in by RM for his solo album Indigo.

At the time of writing, neither Shusmita Anis, Tahsan Khan nor their representatives have released official statements regarding the issue. Tahsan Khan, however, has deleted a promotional post for the video from his Instagram account and the music video’s comment section on YouTube has been disabled.

Both BigHit Music and Hybe have yet to comment on the matter.