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.

Pawan Agarwal, Anushka Sharma’s business partner in her recently launched clothing line, issued a statement in light of the plagiarism row
MUMBAI MIRROR (October 11, 2017)

We have just got to know about the discrepancies in some designs of our brand and we are taking strict action about the same. Our process was that the entire responsibility of designing and procuring samples was at our end and we have recently realised that some of our procured designs from the Chinese manufacturer were available elsewhere too. This isn’t only a serious design and procurement process lapse from our design and procurement team but also a breach of trust by the manufacturing company in China with us. We are taking serious actions, internally and externally, against this breach of faith.

A limited percentage of the collection was manufactured by our Chinese manufacturer. And we follow either of the two processes with them.

1) We design a sample and get it manufactured by the vendor by giving them our design and sample.

2) We buy the design from the manufacturer exclusively for us and also get it produced by them.

As we have realised now, few of the designs that we bought from the manufacturer was further produced and sold on a Chinese website. This is a clear breach of business practice implemented by this manufacturer and we are determined to take this up with our business agents.

We would also like to mention that some of the designs highlighted just have commonalities with prevalent fashion trends and are not copies as mentioned. So We along with our partner Ms. Anushka Sharma are also ensuring that these specific designs are not put on floor and will discard this out from our range.

This we believe is the most necessary step. This is an extreme situation and we have all hand on deck for this. We thank everyone for their patience and understanding towards our endeavour.

We would also like to take this opportunity to mention and clarify that our business partner Ms. Anushka Sharma was never part of our designing and procuring process. She was only involved in advising us on the styles that could go on the floor based on her personal style and sensibility for which she had dedicated a lot of her time and effort. We pride ourselves in partnering with someone known for her credibility, honesty and values she brings to the table as part of her imagery and more. We are committed to bringing the best of designs, at the best prices to the Indian consumers.