The poster, imposter and apology
The poster for Ekta Kapoor’s new web series His Storyy shamelessly yanks off from Sudhanshu Saria’s 2015-film Loev
In July 2019, the Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao-starrer Judgementall Hai Kya, which courted many controversies, was also accused of plagiarism. Producer Ekta Kapoor was accused of plagiarising one of the new posters of the black comedy-thriller by Flora Borsi, a Hungarian digital artist and photographer.
Flora alleged that Ekta’s team had copied her work for the movie’s poster without seeking her permission. The artist, who has verified accounts on both Facebook and Instagram, also shared a collage on social media comparing the said poster and with a photograph that was her piece of work. “Any similarities? It’s a famous Bollywood movie poster called Judgementall Hai Kya. They didn’t ask for any permission nor reached me out. It’s a shame for big companies plagiarising freelance artists’ work (sic),” she’d written.
But it seems copycats never learn, for history repeated itself when Ekta Kapoor’s new show His Storyy had its poster shamelessly yanked off from Sudhanshu Saria’s 2015-same-sex-film Loev. Sudhanshu, who’d recently bagged the National Award for Best Direction for his short
thriller film Knock Knock Knock, shared his concerns on social media thread with a poster of his 2015 same-sex drama Loev, whose poster was copied by AltBalaji for His Storyy. “WHY IS THIS INDUSTRY LIKE THIS? Woke up to find that our painstakingly illustrated, original poster for @loevfilm has just been blatantly ripped off by the geniuses at @altbalaji @ZEE5Premium for their show #HisStoryy // Thread (sic),” his tweet read.
However, the filmmaker managed to get an apology after director Vikramaditya Motwane,
who had directed the Ektaproduced Lootera, helped him take his case to Ekta. “Not only have you stolen somebody’s hard work and passed it off as your own, you refuse to acknowledge your folly, or apologise, or pull the material down. Shame,” read part of what Motwane wrote.
AltBalaji finally apologised, leaving a comment on their social media pages, saying, “On the 9th of April, we released a poster of His Storyy and were made aware of the existence of Sudhanshu’s Loev poster. The uncanny resemblance and similarity cannot be written off as
a mere coincidence. It has been an oversight on part of our design team. For this we apologise,” said a statement from AltBalaji. “We respect the creativity of every designer and would never intentionally lift their work nor disregard their talent. Thus, an apology to the artists involved in the making of this poster is warranted. We have deleted the poster from all our platforms and we humbly apologise to the artists involved in the creation of the beautiful poster of LOEV.”
“On the 9th of April, we released a poster of His Storyy and were made aware of the existence of Sudhanshu’s
Loev poster. The uncanny resemblance and similarity cannot be written off as a mere coincidence. It has been an oversight on part of our design team. For this we apologise,” said a statement from AltBalaji