PLAGIARISM ROW: Business partner says Anushka Sharma 'was never part of designing, procuring process'

Anushka Sharma's NUSH was on on October 9 called out for copying Chinese wholesale brands.

Her business partner has since then issued a statement in this regard, which aims to absolve the actress of all wrongdoing.

Pawan Agarwal, CMD of Suditi Industries, has said in the statement: "We have just got to know about the discrepancies in some designs of our brand NUSH and we are taking strict action about the same."

He added: "Our process at Suditi industries was that the entire responsibility of designing and procuring samples was at our end and we have recently realised that some of our procured designs from the Chinese manufacturer were being available elsewhere too."

Agarwal also said: "This not only is a serious design and procurement process lapse from our design and procurement team but also a breach of trust by the manufacturing company in china with us. We are taking serious actions, internally and externally, against this breach of faith."

To further clarify the process of Nush's designing and procuring, Agarwal explained: "A limited percentage of the collection was manufactured by our Chinese manufacturer. And we follow either of the two processes with them."

1. We design a sample and get it manufactured by the vendor by giving them our design and sample.

2. We buy the design from the manufacturer exclusively for us and also get it produced by them.

He said in the statement: "As we have realised now, a few of the design that we bought from the manufacturer was further produced and sold on a Chinese website. This is a clear breach of business practice implemented by this manufacturer and we are determined to take this up with our business agents.

"We would also like to mention that some of the designs highlighted just have commonalities with prevalent fashion trends and are not copies as mentioned. So We along with our partner Anushka Sharma are also ensuring that these specific designs are not put on floor and will discard this out from our range.

"This we believe is the most necessary step. This is an extreme situation and we have all hand on deck for this. We thank everyone for their patience and understanding towards our endeavour."

It was after all this that he explained that the Sultan actress was not to be blamed.

"We would also like to take this opportunity to mention and clarify that our business partner Anushka Sharma was never part of our designing and procuring process. She was only involved in advising us on the styles that could go on the floor based on her personal style and sensibility for which she had dedicated a lot of her time and effort," said Agarwal.

The NUSH collection will be in stores as per schedule from October 12, 2017.