Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Unfortunately, plagiarism isn’t. What’s more, today’s savage social media trolls don’t take such instances lightly, where celebrities are concerned. Take, for instance, the case with Urvashi Rautela’s recent Instagram post that’s been getting slammed by trolls for the same reason.
But before that, here’s some backstory.
Recently, the paparazzi spotted Urvashi Rautela out for coffee with Ahaan Panday (Chunky Pandey’s nephew). In a video that went viral, the actress appeared rather flustered and was seen rushing into the car and getting out of the media glare.
As rumours about the two dating began doing the rounds, a leading daily reported that the whole ‘surprised’ act was a publicity stunt. Rautela’s PR team had tipped of the paparazzi that she and her friend Ahaan would be there, and this was merely a gimmick to get some photo ops.
In retaliation, the actress took a screenshot of the news item that called the whole thing a publicity gimmick. She wrote a lengthy Instagram caption asking the media to stop posting negative things about her.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn2owxqhTxk/?taken-by=urvashirautela
Now, on the first read, it did sound like a powerful statement against the invasive and often harsh media.
However, fans who read the caption realised that it was lifted, almost word-to-word from a comment that supermodel Gigi Hadid had posted on Instagram a while ago!
After a private account had posted something unsavory about Gigi and her boyfriend, singer Zayn Malik, Gigi decided to shut down haters by sliding into the comments of the post and schooling her haters like a boss.
This was the original post by Gigi.
Barring a few words here and there that referred to Zayn Malik, Urvashi Rautela managed to pretty much Ctrl+C Ctrl+V the entire post, which was actually meant for cyberbullies and not the media!
People were clearly not impressed!
Their chief concern was that this wasn’t imitation, but rather plagiarism since Rautela did not even credit Gigi Hadid for it.
Many pointed out how this wasn’t just ethically wrong but also a huge disrespect to Rautela’s fans who were supporting her cause.
What’s more, the fans who continued to support the plagiarism were also called out for it.
Clearly, the thin line between imitation and plagiarism was crudely blurred here. And considering the original post was meant for a slightly different situation, it seems all the more ridiculous. Wonder what statement the actress plans to make next.
Cover Image Source: Instagram