As brands chase festive deadlines, are creators copying more than just trends?

In a season when brands are racing against time to launch their festive campaigns, one of the emerging concerns is content originality. 

Atul Mishra, a small content creator from Bihar known for his lighthearted videos featuring his mother, has alleged that a bigger creator couple — Keshav and Shashi, who together have over 15.5 million followers on YouTube, copied his video series and used it in a paid collaboration with a toothpaste brand.

According to Mishra, the couple didn’t just take inspiration from his idea but lifted entire dialogues from his viral series, line by line, with only minor changes in the promotional parts. “19-20 ka difference toh mere dost bhi assignment copy karte time chhod dete the (Even my friends used to leave at least a 1–2% difference while copying assignments). He has copied every single line of mine except for the promotion part. And that too not from one video, but from two to three videos.”

Mishra said he discovered the alleged plagiarism only after his followers began commenting on his posts, accusing him of copying the more famous YouTube duo.
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The Bigger Question: How Did a Brand Approve a Copied Script?

Mishra also called out the toothpaste brand for approving what he claims was a copied script. “And the worst part is that people come and write in your comment section that you have copied this video from their YouTube,” he said, tagging both the brand and the creators in his posts.

He further shared that despite several attempts to reach out to both parties, he received no response.

The video has now crossed around 8.3k comments and 212.7k likes on Instagram. Other creators also joined the conversation, saying they have faced similar experiences.

Dr. Aakriti Singh, who goes by @comfymeal on Instagram, commented, “I can totally relate to how you feel. It’s very frustrating when this happens, especially when you see many not giving a damn and only caring about their own entertainment and following/supporting such people. Even Instagram does not really do much about it. I can feel the pain completely.”

Our team reached out to Keshav for an official response but did not receive a comment.

Mishra added that several well-known brands, including Swiggy, Blinkit, and multiple fashion labels, have approached him for collaborations, but he turned them down to keep his content organic. “Many brands have reached out to me for collaborations, but I never did them because I wanted to stay relatable,” he said.

The irony, he pointed out, is that people who copy ideas often grow faster. “I have seen this happen. People who make copy videos, their followers grow very fast. I can do it too. But I don’t do it because if someone writes to me that your video has been copied, I won’t be able to sleep at night. How do these people sleep?”

When Creative Freedom Backfires

Gautam Madhavan, CEO of Mad Influence and Xley AI, said that brands today no longer send scripted dialogues to creators to read and perform. “Legacy brands and even newer ones have started giving creators the liberty to design their own content. Sending the same script to every creator is the worst way to promote a product. Each creator has their own audience, and they understand what kind of content works for them. Brands that allow creative freedom are doing it right,” he said.

However, Madhavan added that some creators are misusing this liberty by copying content, which is not acceptable. “What brands can do to protect themselves is ensure content hygiene at the ground level. At our agency, we say no to AI-generated content. Whenever a creator sends us a draft, we make sure to get it approved first. We sometimes omit or modify parts if the content doesn’t align with the brand’s narrative. This hygiene check is done right at the base level, Krunal Kanabar, Head of Strategy and IP at NOFILTR, said.

Explaining his view, Kanabar said: “The line between inspiration and plagiarism in content creation is messier than people want to admit. We don’t police ‘concepts’ because that’s a losing battle. Vlogging, unboxing, day-in-the-life, GRWM, these are formats, not IP. They’re creative languages everyone speaks differently.

What we do focus on is execution authenticity. Our creators aren’t reading someone else’s script verbatim or recreating shots frame by frame. The creator’s voice, their perspective, their audience relationship that’s what makes content original, not the concept itself.”

“Nine times out of ten, if two creators make similar content, it’s because they were given similar references or asked to jump on the same trend. If there’s clear overlap, same script, same framing, same creative idea, we address it directly and privately with the creator. But genuine cases of that are rare. What’s more common is brands or creators crying theft over concepts that have been done a hundred times before. Someone thinks they invented ‘get ready with me’ or ‘day in my life’ as a profession and that’s not how this works.”

Not an Isolated Incident

Something similar happened recently. In October, Abhay Sehgal, who runs the brand Art by Sehgal, became the center of a major controversy after multiple creators accused him of plagiarizing their digital artwork.

Digital artists, including Krishna Bala Shenoi, posted viral Instagram Reels showing side-by-side comparisons of Sehgal's “original” works next to their own. The evidence suggested that Sehgal’s art was made by copying other digital works, altering them using AI tools, and then presenting them as original hand-painted canvases.
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Krunal added, “Watermarking and IP protection are band-aids on a bigger issue, the industry’s obsession with viral formats over genuine creator expression.”

According to Krunal, the real problem isn’t that creators are ‘stealing’ from each other. It’s that brands brief ten different creators with the exact same reference video and then act surprised when the output looks similar. “We’ve all seen the brief that’s just: ‘make it like this reel.’”

“What we need isn’t more legal infrastructure — it’s brands trusting creators to do what they do best instead of asking them to recreate someone else’s work. When you get a creator on board for their audience and authenticity, then hand them a shot-by-shot storyboard, you’re creating the plagiarism problem yourself.”

The Legal Gray Area

Another industry expert said, “Currently, much of the digital content ecosystem operates on trust, and while creators invest time and creativity, there’s little legal enforcement unless the matter escalates.

In India, copyright law protects original literary, artistic, and audiovisual works, which includes digital content. If a creator’s content is copied or plagiarized, they can file a complaint under the Copyright Act, 1957, seeking remedies such as injunctions, monetary damages, and even criminal action in certain cases.”

When disputes arise between two creators or brands claiming idea theft, legal mediation can get tricky because ideas themselves are not protected and only their expression is.

For example, if an Indian creator’s video or digital artwork is copied by another creator or brand without permission, the original creator can pursue copyright infringement claims. Platforms may also take down infringing content under the IT Act, 2000, and intermediary liability rules.

However, enforcement can be slow, which is why some agencies are now encouraging watermarking, timestamping, and maintaining version histories of content as proof of originality. These practices help brands and creators establish ownership and reduce disputes during campaign execution.

"The industry would benefit from being less precious about concepts and more focused on what actually matters — authentic creator voices and genuine audience connections. If your content can be easily replicated, maybe the issue isn’t plagiarism. Maybe it’s just not that original to begin with," Krunal said.

This entire episode has opened up a larger debate in the creator economy, are brands verifying the authenticity of scripts and concepts before approving influencer content? As the line between inspiration and imitation continues to blur, the responsibility lies with both creators and brands to maintain originality and ethical standards in the ever-evolving world of digital storytelling.