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Activist-designer Somy Ali is upset with Salman Khan for blatantly copying her ‘Human Being’ campaign

Where’s The Originality, Sallu? Somy Ali with a model

It’s one thing to launch a fund-raising foundation for a worthy cause, but quite another to copy the concept and creations from someone else.

Sometime back, Salman Khan announced the launch of his ‘Being Human’ foundation, whose aim is to generate funds for the underprivileged through the star’s varied activities like the sale of his paintings, numerous public appearances, participation in stage shows and through his own fashion label by the same name.

At the launch, Salman even distributed T-shirts with ‘Being Human’ splashed across them in bold lettering. It’s a noble gesture, no doubt, but maybe not so original after all.

Salman’s ‘Being Human’ campaign seems to have been blatantly ‘adapted’ from journalist-activist-designer Somy Ali’s ‘Human Being’ mission, which took off sometime in March 2007.

Somy, who was involved with Salman a long time ago, launched her designer label, So-Me Creations (www.so-medesigns. com), and the ‘Human Being’ factor has been an integral part of it.

Word play

According to a reliable source, “Somy was shocked when she read the news about Salman’s ‘Being Human’ launch. He had just changed the words around from her campaign. Somy’s collections were never a secret and even the Indian media had covered her initiative extensively. So obviously, Salman knew about it. She was taken aback when she found out that he had deliberately copied all her ideas.”

Clash of interests

Somy’s ‘Human Being’ collection has been on sale online since March this year, and all the proceeds go towards charitable causes. The former actress has plans for an Asia launch sometime later this year.

She is even planning huge fund-raising activities through her own foundation No More Tears, which will enable her to open schools for the underprivileged in India and Pakistan.

“But now, with Salman’s foundation having the same name, there is obviously going to be a clash of interests,” says the source. “He didn’t need to copy the same name, especially when he was aware that Somy had already announced her label much before he did. It’s like back-stabbing someone you once shared a close relationship with.”

When HiTLIST contacted Somy in Florida, she didn’t want to speak about the episode.

But the hurt was obvious when she said, “If someone gets inspired by your efforts, there’s not much you can do about it. And well, imitation is the best form of flattery, isn’t it? I wish them all the best.”