A ripoff is a ripoff, no excuses

Imitation, they say, is the best form of flattery. But tell that to Suneet Varma who is livid with fellow designer Aki Narula for allegedly using a design from his collection to dress Rani Mukerji in the yet-to-be released film Bunti aur Babli. HT City Exclusive: Designer rip off

Imitation, they say, is the best form of flattery. But tell that to Suneet Varma who is livid with fellow designer Aki Narula for allegedly using a design from his Fall 2003 collection to dress Rani Mukerji in the yet-to-be released film Bunti aur Babli.

HT Image

The story, broken by HT City on Monday, gave those present on the penultimate day of the Lakme India Fashion Week something to talk about with Varma threatening to initiate legal action against the film's "producer, director, designer and actress".

The bone of contention: A blue layered chiffon poncho with silk tassels paired with black bootleg trousers with ethnic embroidery.

Narula, the film's costume designer, earlier denied the copycat allegations, saying that his team bought the outfit from Options, a designer store in Mumbai. "It had no label and I really didn't know that it was a rip-off."

At a press conference here, Varma dismissed this as hogwash. "Have you seen any garment without a label at any of the stores?" he said. "It's ridiculous. Even if that was the case, an advertising campaign was carried in all fashion magazines. I refuse to accept that he didn't know that it was mine."

Narula, who held a separate press conference later in the day, reaffirmed that he wasn't aware that the garment was a Suneet Varma fake when he bought it for the film. "I now realise that it was an outright copy done at this store called Options," he said. "When I was informed of this, I called up Suneet and told him I was willing to give him the documents that proved it."

Rathi Vinay Jha of the Fashion Design Council of India said she would take appropriate action once investigations were completed. "From the report and photos, it seems that the outfit was a direct copy. We have to look into the copyright/patent law and the aspect of design registration. We will decide what to do after we hear from Narula."