HisStoryy is an upcoming queer web series produced by Indian production company ZEE5. It hasn’t even been created yet and is already causing controversy.
The soap opera tells the story of Kunal, a man who seems to have an ideal life, with a great job, a loving wife and two wonderful sons. But he also has a secret: he keeps a male partner aside. When the relationship is revealed, Kunal’s seemingly perfect life falls apart.
Now filmmaker Sudhanshu Saria says the series poster was ‘snatched and stolen’ from his 2015 directorial feature debut LOEV, a gay romance that screened at several major film festivals, including SXSW and Frameline . It is currently available on Netflix.
In a long Instagram post, Saria wrote, “Why are people doing this? A reputable studio like @altbalaji and @ zee5 with all the money and resources in the world embarrassing amazing artists like @instasattu and @crimrinal to post works of art that are simply ripped off and stolen. “
The post includes the two posters that people can compare. We have to say that they are surprisingly similar.
Saria says he’s “happy” to see a strange love story told, but he’s “ashamed and angry” that his poster has been hijacked in this way.
Saria also posted about it on Twitter, where he received several messages of support …
Objectively, Loev is light years 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 is not even well done !! as if the brief was “act like you pretend you are asleep”
– Narayan! Narayan! (@ NarayanK86) April 9, 2021
Professional standards in India are below the bare minimum
As this tweet shows, if this had happened in the United States, the producer would have issued an immediate apology and the artist would be blacklisted.
Hell, students are regularly kicked out for plagiarism, zero tolerance
– RIP APJ (@ apj234) April 9, 2021
Who knows, even the story might be a scam
– dhananjay (@ dk751) April 9, 2021
ZEE5 has not responded to the accusations, but has released a new poster for HisStoryy, which will be released on April 25, and it continues to promote the show on Instagram.
Check out the trailer below.
