ALTBalaji spokesperson responds to 'His Storyy' poster plagiarism allegations

National Award-winning filmmaker Sudhanshu Saria has alleged that producer Ekta Kapoor's streaming platform ALTBalaji has plagiarised the poster of his film Loev for its new show His Storyy. The show, backed by Ding Entertainment, is scheduled to start streaming on ALTBalaji and ZEE5 Premium from April 25. It stars Satyadeep Mishra, Priyamani Raj and Mrinal Dutt. 

Saria, who bagged the National Award for best direction last month for his feature Knock Knock Knock, took to Twitter on Friday and shared the poster of his acclaimed 2015 same-sex romantic drama, which featured the film's two leads lying in an embrace. The film starred  Dhruv Ganesh and Shiv Pandit. 

The poster of His Storyy, shared by ALTBalaji on its social media pages, also showed their characters in a strikingly similar position. In a Twitter thread, Saria wrote he was disappointed at the makers for "blatantly" copying his poster.  "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. 

Hours after Saria's allegations, ALTBalaji spokesperson said the team would never plagiarise any artiste's work and is currently looking into the matter. 

"We at ALTBalaji hold every artist's representation of work as paramount and will never intentionally pick up another artist's hard work. We have got multiple creative partners working on our show posters and are doing our due diligence on this," the statement read. 

Film professional Jahan Bakshi also wrote, "This poster for LOEV was designed by @TalkPigeonCo and illustrated by Rohan Pore. We spent months on it. Investing solid time/money on a poster for an indie film is difficult. And yet, a studio which surely has the resources to commission original designs opts to steal it. Sad."

The director also apologized on the microblogging site for failing to protect the work of his collaborators as he was one of the producers of "Loev". Saria wrote the culture of copying an artwork "must end."

Bro @altbalaji are you okay? I mean if you need someone to design posters I can help you, I promise it doesn't cost that much pic.twitter.com/YdAGvjqZFj

— JSB (@jahanbakshi)

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 pic.twitter.com/ljQ9vNSa0a

— Sudhanshu Saria (@iamsuds)

As a producer, I apologise to my collaborators and artists for not being able to protect their work better. Please feel RT and Share. This culture must end. @arfilaamba @ShivPanditt @sidmenon1 #LOEV

— Sudhanshu Saria (@iamsuds)

This poster for LOEV was designed by @TalkPigeonCo and illustrated by Rohan Pore. We spent months on it. Investing solid time/money on a poster for an indie film is difficult. And yet, a studio which surely has the resources to commission original designs opts to steal it. Sad. pic.twitter.com/XYzGcFBmdZ

— JSB (@jahanbakshi)

(With PTI inputs)