The second season of Amazon Prime's Made in Heaven, which received a positive response from both critics and the audience, has also been getting some criticism. Designer Tarun Tahiliani took to Instagram to vent his displeasure and accused the show's makers of not giving him due credit for his designs being featured in one of the episodes.
Calling it a 'shocking breach of faith', Tahiliani alleged that the designs from his label were used in the show, but were attributed to a fictitious designer. "It is most unfortunate when a popular OTT series violates the understanding behind the provision of clothing in the first place. Case in point: Significant portions of the second episode of 'Made in Heaven,' were styled using clothes provided by the Tarun Tahiliani studio in good faith to the stylist.
The designer shared screengrabs of scenes from the episode featuring Mrunal Thakur in which she dons an elegant bridal lehanga. The designer said the production house should have engaged a "costume designer, had costumes designed, and proceeded" if their intentions were not to give credit to him.
"Let's hope that this scenario does not repeat itself with other designers who have graciously lent their work for OTT productions. Furthermore, it is our hope that such actions will never be considered acceptable in the future," Tahliani added.
Yashica Dutt's claims
Tahiliani's criticism of the show created by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti comes shortly after writer and dalit activist Yashica Dutt raised similar allegations. Dutt, an alumnus of Columbia University and the author of Coming Out as Dalit, claimed that Radhika Apte's character in the episode 5 was based on her life story, but episode director Neeraj Ghaywan had not given her credit.
"It was surreal to see a version of my life on screen that wasn’t but yet was still me. But soon the heartbreak set in. They were my words but my name was nowhere. What could have been a celebration of our collective ideas was now tinged with sadness,” she wrote.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the Made in Heaven team denied Dutt's claims. "The central conflict of the episode is whether Pallavi should fight to have the wedding rituals that are a signifier of her identity, or not. None of the above is drawn from Yashica Dutt's life or her book - 'Coming Out As Dalit'. We categorically deny any claim that Ms. Dutt's life or work was appropriated by us," the statement read.
