Sudhanshu Saria: Haven’t received a call from producers, platform

Posters of His Storyy and Loev

After a barrage of tweets from the creative community and a scathing post by filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane, ALTBalaji 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.

Ekta Kapoor. Pic/Sneha Kharabe

"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.

Sudhanshu Saria directed 2015 film Loev

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 apologised? I want Balaji's show to do well.

ALTBalaji apologised on Sunday

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."