Loev vs His Storyy plagiarism row: Sudhanshu Saria rues, ‘It made me feel invisible, insignificant, powerless’
After Sudhanshu Saria pointed out similarities between the poster of Ekta Kapoor’s web series, His Storyy and his 2015 film Loev, the production house as well as the lead cast of the upcoming show apologised for the oversight and took off the posters from all platforms.
“Some time back, I was told by my country that I exist when I got the National Film Award, and then 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 back on his feelings 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, further questioning, “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.”
On April 9, Saria took to twitter to express his anger, claiming that the makers of the series copied the poster of his movie. Incidently, both the projects tackles the subject of same sex relationships.
“Now, people are sending me all kinds of stuff, which demonstrates that there’s a long standing culture of plagiarism. Like someone mentioned that the name of the show is also copied from a Korean show. I’m shocked,” he says.
Saria is further wondering if the makers also lifted some scene from his film, which explores the issue of homosexual rape through the story of two characters.
“Those actors probably were shown a reference image and pose. So, everybody knew that they were plagiarising,” says the director, who won the National Film Award for best direction in March this year for his film, Knock Knock Knock.
On what pushed him to raise his voice and address the issue, Saria says, “The number one reason I got upset was that it made me, my team, made us feel invisible. It made us feel like, ‘You’re so insignificant and powerless, that I can walk into your living room, take your stuff, without any shame, use it, recreate it, put it out and not even have to hear the consequences. Because that’s just how entitled or powerful I am’.”
To the director, known for dealing with complex human emotions through his stories, the whole scenario presents an “interesting dichotomy”, but it’s not something he’s willing to accept.
“I’m not going to just shut up and pretend as if it’s not a big deal, because it’s a violation of my work, energy and experience,” he maintains.
Saria’s voice was heard when soon after his post, ALTBalaji released a statement on Twitter apologising for the oversight. “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 Covid-19, seems to be totally unconvinced with the statement, as he further wrote a series of tweets calling the apology “not entirely sincere and comprehensive”. He wished the platform “acknowledged the authors of the poster” and claimed that “...this was a decision, not an accident. And it’s all about the internal culture within your company.”
Saria asserts that he 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.