National award-winning filmmaker Sudhanshu Saria, who had recently raised his voice against plagiarism over the poster of his film, LOEV, been copied and reused without his consent for the upcoming web series His Storry, an ALT Balaji production, now says he has no qualms working with the production house.
On April 9, when the poster of His Storry was released, Sudhanshu had pointed out on social media that the poster is ripped off from his 2017 film LOEV, which streams on Netflix. On April 11, Ekta’s team from ALTBalaji put out an apology and removed the poster from all their platforms. But Saria wasn’t impressed. In an interview, a fuming Saria said, “This action is brazen, disrespectful, inconsiderate, careless and it is smacks of arrogance. They saw the poster, they took it and reused it thinking I am such a nobody in the business that no one would notice who originally created the poster! I am in the business for last 18 years.” He demanded that the production house apologises to the maker of the original poster.
However, it is interesting that even though the director seems livid with the turn of events, he is very much open to collaborating with the same production house. “This is how the culture of plagiarism can change, by working with the original creator, not by alienating people. See, when I collaborate with them, I will bring my force of creating original work into the process and I can show them how they can create something original, which is profitable without ripping off others’ work. Ekta’s company is also the same company that supported the release of an important film like Lipstick Under My Burkha. Yes, they have acted poorly in this matter, but when you are doing a lot of work, at times you make some poor choices. It would be foolish of me to say ‘No, I will never work with them’, because in my journey as a filmmaker, I am sure I have made mistakes as well,” Sudhanshu suddenly is more forgiving. “I think putting someone or some idea away would be bitter...the production house did not murder somebody, they made a horrible mistake by ripping off the poster of my film. I raise my voice, but I do not hold grudges,” he said.
Indeed, it seems no one wants to have a beef with Ekta Kapoor!
