DNA (November 3, 2017)

Anushka Sharma surprised the girls on filmmaker Aanand L Rai’s set when she gifted them pretty little bags of trendy clothes from her label. The actress had studied the girls and knew their personal styles, and gifted things accordingly. A source from the film’s set said, “Anushka made the ladies on our set very happy with her gifts. She gelled well with the team and got to know most of the crew members’ personalities. She would have regular chats with the crew between shots and started bonding with them. She decided what to give to each of them, depending on their individual taste. Every girl working on the sets — assistant directors, costume assistants and those with the production team — were happy to get these clothes.”

Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; October 12, 2017)

"I had been working on this for the last one-and-a-half years,” Anushka Sharma had said to the media while unveiling her designer line, Nush, last week.

Ironically, the actor soon found herself facing plagiarism charges when several ensembles from her line were identical to outfits available on Chinese e-commerce websites, which sell at wholesale rates. Sharma’s team quickly jumped into damage control mode. In what could probably be a desperate attempt to save face, Pawan Agarwal (of Suditi Industries), who is also a partner in the venture, issued a statement saying, “Anushka was not part of the designing.” With a simple statement, Agarwal absolved her of partaking in the act of lifting designs.

However, it is with this very statement that he inadvertently put the spotlight on Sharma’s role in the designing of the collection. The actor now finds herself facing the heat about claiming to have contributed to the creation of the apparels.

During the launch, she had said, “My nature is such that if I do something, I become completely involved. With clothing, I not only had to do something that I really believed in, but also keep in mind that each one of us is unique and have our own dressing styles that suit us. I have personally taken interest in the styles.”

Sharma had further added that she used to spend so much time working on the designs that her mother had to remind her to eat. Not just that, in an interview to Sunday midday (October 8), Sharma had stated how she had been a part of several meetings as her team had brainstormed over the outfits to be featured in the collection. She had said, “The initial rounds of meetings would go on forever. Every piece of clothing conceived, was worn, and shared with members of focus groups who tried it.”

As Sharma came under fire, her spokesperson flipped versions, saying, “Anushka Sharma was only involved in advising and giving additional inputs after seeing first samples of designs, which were first conceptualized by Suditi’s design and procurement team (sic).” Meanwhile, Sharma’s clothing line will hit stores today barring the items under scrutiny.

Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 10, 2017)

Barely a week after Anushka Sharma launched her clothing brand with an autumn-winter collection comprising 160 pieces, to be available across online stores and major retail outlets across the country, and a promo that lays emphasis on her deep involvement in every step of designing the line, the actress now finds herself in a copyright row. The clothing label’s launch has been swiftly followed by online reports that some of the pieces from the extremely trendy and on-point collection are actually a direct lift from an array of Chinese e-commerce websites.

Among the items that have invited particular scrutiny are a black bomber jacket with floral motifs, a pink bomber jacket, a parka, a tan trench coat and a pair of striped pants in monochrome. In the promo video, Anushka is seen brainstorming for extended periods of time with a team of designers and stylists about her personal aesthetics, subsequent addition and removal of details on outfits and cruelty-free clothing, among others. “One of these meetings lasted nine hours,” the 29-year-old actress-filmmaker is heard saying at one point.

Given her proactive involvement in the venture, the allegations have come as a surprise. “There were meetings we would have at the sampling stage of the collection and I remember slotting two hours for them but they went on for far longer. Some of them were at my home and I remember my mum saying, ‘Khaana toh kha lo.’ But I enjoyed the process that I didn’t realise how much time had passed,” Anushka was quoted as saying at the launch. She went on to elaborate on how she got into minor details of every outfit, further stating that even though she hasn’t designed them herself, the approvals to the designers were all given by her.

“I give inputs on the styles, what works and what doesn’t, I wanted the aesthetics to be according to my personal style,” she had reiterated. When Mirror contacted Anushka, for a comment, her spokesperson said, “Several discrepancies have come to light over the last two days and we are in the process of getting to the bottom of this. We will not stop at taking the most stringent action required to resolve the situation and will share more details when we have complete clarity on the matter.”