HisStoryy is an upcoming queer web series produced by the Indian production company ZEE5. It hasn’t even premiered yet and it’s already drawing controversy.
The soap opera tells the story of Kunal, a man who seems to have an ideal life, complete with a great job, loving wife, and two wonderful sons. But he also has a secret: he’s keeping a male partner on the side. When the relationship is exposed, Kunal’s seemingly perfect life crumbles.
Now, filmmaker Sudhanshu Saria says the show’s poster has been “ripped off and stolen” from his 2015 directorial debut feature film LOEV, a gay romance that was screened at a number of major film festivals, including SXSW and Frameline. It’s currently available on Netflix.
In a lengthy Instagram post, Saria writes: “Why do people do this? A reputed studio like @altbalaji and @zee5 with all the money and resources in the world embarrassing incredible artists like @instasattu and @crimrinal to post artwork that is just plain ripped off and stolen.”
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The post includes both posters for people to compare. We have to say, they are strikingly similar.
Saria says he’s “glad” to see a queer love story being told but he is “ashamed and angry” that his poster was hijacked in such a way.
Saria also posted about it on Twitter, where he received several messages of support…
Objectively, Loev is lightyears ahead of this. In fact, any comparison will be wrong.
— shubhankar.c (@monkeypreneur) April 9, 2021
It’s stupidity like this because of which these Bollywoodias have managed to get away with blatant plagiarism over the years.
— vaibhav mishra (@vaibhavthegaul) April 9, 2021
Intellectual property is cheap in India 👀
— Avinash (@Avinash06926453) April 9, 2021
and it’s not even well done!! like the brief was “act like you’re acting that you’re asleep”
— Narayan! Narayan! (@NarayanK86) April 9, 2021
Professional Standards in India are below the bare minimum
This tweet shows it, if this had happened in usa the producer would have tendered immediate apology and artist would be blacklisted
Hell, students are regular expelled for plagiarism , zero tolerance
— RIP APJ (@apj234) April 9, 2021
Who knows, even the story might turnout to be a ripoff
— dhananjay (@dk751) April 9, 2021
ZEE5 has not responded to the accusations, but it has released a new poster for HisStoryy, which premieres on April 25, and it is continuing to promote the show on Instagram.
Check out the trailer below.
Kangol2
That poster is clearly a rip-off of LOEV, which is a film to watch if you can. I think it may still be on Netflix. This one looks OK from the trailer, but the main male lead and his boyfriend are both kind of hot, so maybe it’s worth watching no matter how derivative it might be.
cortlan
Looking for a lover for one night…
My nude photos and videos here -> xmeet.fun
Prax07
Isn’t this the country where father’s still behead their daughters for dating outside their caste system? Pass on Anything from that shithole.
bob loblaw
Isn’t the US the country where cops kill people for being black? Pass on Anything from that shithole.
Squeak
Right on, bob loblaw, & isn’t the US that shithole country where kids take guns to school to kill their classmates ?
Cam
Anything to deflect from the fact of the story, an LGBTQ movie in India right?