Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; February 2, 2017)

Given the fan following Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt enjoy on social media, it was no surprise that the poster of Karan Johar’s Badrinath Ki Dulhania started trending soon after its release on Monday. But, striking similarity to a poster of Telugu film Garam (2016), featuring Kannada star Saikumar Pudipeddi’s son, Aadi, and Adah Sharma, is hard to miss.

Garam’s co-producer Babji Bagavatula said, “The similarity is uncanny. But we believe the film industry is like one family. We don’t mind it [resemblance]; their poster looks lovely. Karan (Johar, producer of Badrinath Ki Dulhania) is also a filmmaker like us. We don’t want to jeopardise their film. We also copy stuff, because ours is an industry that runs on borrowed ideas.”

Co-producer Saikumar was amused with the similarity. “Garam is a family drama that deals with a young mischievous boy. I don’t think there is any similarity between the stories of the two films. But clearly, people making Badrinath Ki Dulhania liked our concept.” When asked whether they’ll discuss the matter with Johar, Saikumar laughed off the matter, saying, “We don’t want to do anything about it. It’s flattering that our idea went on to become the first look of a KJo film.”

Despite repeated attempts, Badrinath director Shashank Khaitan remained unavailable for comment.