After ALT Balaji issues an apology for uncanny similarity between His Storyy and Loev posters, latter’s director Sudhanshu Saria says the episode shows the industry’s plagiarism culture
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; April 13, 2021)

After a barrage of tweets from the creative community and a scathing post by filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane, ALT Balaji acknowledged that the uncanny similarities between the posters of His Storyy and Loev “cannot be a mere coincidence”. On April 9, the OTT platform had released the first poster of His Storyy, which saw Satyadeep Mishra and Mrinal Dutt lying in bed, embracing each other. Soon, Sudhanshu Saria, who had helmed indie film Loev (2015), took to Twitter to point out that the image was a rip-off of his film’s poster. Three days since, as the Ekta Kapoor-headed platform issued an apology, Saria says the incident is a symptom of a deeper problem plaguing Indian showbiz.

“The fact that so many creative people spoke up reflects that plagiarism is a normalised part of our industry. Sattu [Mishra] and Suparn [Varma, writer] texted me within minutes of my post. Photographer Jitu Savlani indicated that [the team] was asked to recreate our poster. I understand someone getting inspired by our poster because it captures intimacy well, but this is a [blatant] recreation, with even the colour palette [being retained],” he fires. 

The filmmaker, who was delivered his National Award for Knock Knock Knock last week, is shocked at the lack of respect for originality. “They didn’t even give Jitu the chance to do better. After this happened, I haven’t received a single call from the producers or the platform. They made a mistake; they said sorry. Why am I supposed to feel grateful that they apologized? I want Balaji’s show to do well. I could’ve lent them a few original ideas — they could’ve put Sattu and Priyamani on the bed, and had Mrinal’s illustration on top to depict that a third person has entered their marriage.”

After this episode, Saria has a singular appeal to producers — to encourage creative ingenuity instead of resorting to plagiarism. “Balaji isn’t the only company that does this; the problem runs deeper. Let’s not forget it’s the same production house that financed Lootera [2013] and ensured Lipstick Under My Burkha [2017] gets a theatrical release. I urge producers to be respectful of the collaborative process. I am not propagating cancel culture.”
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Sugandha Rawal (HINDUSTAN TIMES; April 13, 2021)

“Some time back I was told by my country that I exist, when I got the National Film Award. Two weeks later, one of the most senior people in my industry pretends as if nothing I do matters and I’m invisible and insignificant,” rues director Sudhanshu Saria reflecting on what he felt when he found “ridiculously obvious” similarities between the poster of an upcoming web show, His Storyy, backed by Ekta Kapoor, and his 2015 film Loev.

“I’m not looking to recover money from them, or sue them. I just want them to know that it’s not nice and not okay,” says a disappointed Saria. “What kind of a culture are we in where you can have a marketing meeting and take somebody else’s idea? You have the money to hire them, but you don’t want to. You simply want to cannibalise other’s work. That’s not okay,” he asserts.

On April 9, Saria took to Twitter to express his anguish, claiming that the makers of the web series copied the poster of his movie. Incidentally, both projects tackle the subject of same-sex relationships. Saria is wondering if the makers also lifted some scenes from his film, which explores the issue of homosexual rape. “Those actors probably were shown a reference image to pose. So, everybody knew that they were plagiarising,” says the director, who won the National Film Award for best non-feature direction in March this year, for his film, Knock Knock Knock.

Soon after his post, ALT Balaji tweeted a statement apologizing for the incident. “The uncanny resemblance and similarity cannot be written off as a mere coincidence... For this we apologise... We’ve deleted the poster from all our platforms,” the statement read.

However, Saria, currently recuperating from Coronavirus, is unconvinced by the statement. He wishes the platform “acknowledged the authors of the poster” and claimed that “...this was a decision, not an accident”. Moreover, Saria wants people to be held accountable for their actions. “I feel like I’m adding to the chain. The next time someone Googles it, this will come up. And eventually, it will become harder and harder for them to pretend as if it’s not a thing,” he concludes.