Nora Fatehi’s ‘Pachtaoge’ Is Eerily Similar To Beyonce’s 2014 Music Video ‘Mine’. Coincidence? Diet Sabya Thinks Not!
This time last year, T-series gave a breakup anthem to all the scorned lovers with ‘Pachtaoge’, which featured Nora Fatehi and Vicky Kaushal. The song was all about love and betrayal, and in its music video, the wife (Nora) has an affair with some douche and cheats on her husband, who looks like Vicky Kaushal (who does that?). Anyway, the song was a major hit and the next thing we knew, TikTokers were making #heartbreak videos, lip-syncing the lyrics of the song with slo-mo effects and tears and what not. It was used over 1 million times on the app.
The song was such a big success that the makers decided to release a female version of the song a year later. On August 14, T-series dropped the music video that had Nora Fatehi play the heartbroken lover who’s down in the dumps this time. Everything was fine until the industry watchdog Diet Sabya pointed out the striking resemblance of the video to Beyonce’s 2014 music video ‘Mine’. It was uncanny.
In the ‘Pachtaoge’ video, Nora Fatehi has a similar white outfit, a veil and the whole Mother Mary vibe going on which was the inspiration behind Beyonce’s ‘Mine’ but has no significance to this song whatsoever. Plus, the backup dancers too have similar flowy gowns in toned down beige shade. Even the dance moves are almost the same. Apart from the red rose and the headgear, the whole scene looks like it’s been copy-pasted from Bey’s ‘Mine’. Diet Sabya called out the music label for copycatting Queen B’s work and was shocked at the sheer audacity. They posted the shots of the two videos and captioned it “T-Series out here stealing from THE QUEEN. Guts on ?!!”
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Nora Fatehi dressed in all white and singing the song with no expression on her face isn’t what surprised us, though. What did, was how the concept of the video was a knock-off of other music videos by various artists. In one scene, blood is oozing out of Nora’s eyes which reminded us of Zayn Malik’s ‘Pillowtalk’ featuring Gigi Hadid where something similar happens to her. Another was the similar graphics used in the video that were too identical to be called an inspiration.
Nora Fatehi did a live on her Instagram account with Steven Thomas, in which someone asked her how she came up with the concept of the video. She said that she wanted to come up with something “out-of-the-box” and “artistic” where the visuals would help you interpret the different emotions and stages of heartbreak. She said that the Mother Mary bit depicted the innocence and purity of first love. What even? She clearly needs to come up with a better explanation for the idea that was obviously stolen.
The comments on the post are hilarious. People couldn’t help but mention the bits and pieces of the video that gave them déjà vu. While some listed out the music videos they think the makers stole from, others were just surprised at the uncanny similarity and guts of T-series to plagiarise. One Instagram user wrote, “The first time I saw this I couldn’t believe someone can actually make such blatant copy !!!!” “You would think they would be at least a little subtle about copying but nooooo,” a user wrote. Another user wrote, “T-series doing what they do the best.” Actor Karan Tacker also commented, “Oops!”
Some users pointed out that this plagiarism is not new for T-series as it has copied from others’ work several times in the past. But does that give them the pass to continue stealing? Before ‘Pachtaoge’, Diet Sabya has blasted T-series before for making a ‘gandi copy’ of the song ‘Masakali’ (and turning it into the horror known as ‘Masakali 2.0’) and for using (after horribly modifying) Ritviz’s song ‘Udd Gaye’ in the movie Pati Patni Aur Woh and not giving the artist the due credit.
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Diet Sabya has made quite a stir in the past by naming and shaming the biggest fashion brands, companies and celebrities for foul play. What started as a social media page that exposed fashion brands for its ‘gandi copy’ (cheap copy) of designs, has now become the muckraker for the whole glamour and showbiz industry. When it comes to dirty deeds in the fashion and film industry, nothing escapes the eyes of Diet Sabya. Before this, the anonymous account has also slammed companies for its toxic culture and unfair treatment toward its employees, plagiarized ad shoots and art direction that looks tad familiar to someone else’s work. In a matter of a couple of years, it has amassed a following of more than 220k on Instagram.
Now, for such a huge music company like T-series, you’d think that they would take the plagiarism thing seriously or at least be subtle about it, especially when a watchdog like Diet Sabya has their eye on them. But seems like they don’t give two hoots about it. They have not acknowledged the claims of plagiarism before and I am convinced they won’t try and do that now. But I certainly hope that this culture of gift-wrapping plagiarism as ‘inspiration’ seriously stops. Varna, bada pachtaoge!
