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Designer Maria B is once again in the spotlight, this time for threatening legal action against Turkish influencer Türkan Atay, who publicly accused her of failing to pay her in full for a brand shoot in Turkey earlier this year. On Thursday, Atay issued a legal notice to the designer for $8,000 and a formal apology.

Atay, affectionately dubbed “Pakistani Bhabhi” on social media due to her marriage to a Pakistani man, released multiple Instagram videos over the past few days in which she claimed Maria B’s team hired her to manage a production for the brand’s 2025 campaign but failed to follow through on the agreed compensation.

What began as a payment dispute has now snowballed into a public spat, with Atay asserting that she’s been blocked by Maria B, whose full name is Maria Butt, on Instagram. She interpreted the move as the designer’s refusal to engage maturely with the issue.

On Thursday, Atay issued a legal notice through her lawyer to the designer for $8,000 — a sum that includes legal fees of $2,000, the remaining $1,000 as agreed upon in her initial discussions with a representative for the brand, and a further $5,000 for mental anguish caused.

How it started

Atay, who has built a sizeable following of over 850,000 on Instagram with her Urdu-language content, shared an emotional Instagram video on Sunday in which she alleged that Maria B’s team approached her to help coordinate and execute a shoot in Türkiye for the brand’s 2025 collection.

Atay said she was clear from the outset that she would charge per dress, inclusive of all production costs such as location, models, and videography.

To support her claims, Atay shared what she alleges are screenshots of her conversations with the Maria B team’s PR manager. In these messages, the influencer had allegedly stated, “Per outfit with touristic location and professional video [redacted] USD,” to which the manager agreed. However, the brand later allegedly issued a lump-sum payment, claiming they had misunderstood the pricing structure.

According to the alleged exchanges, when Atay brought up the issue, the manager admitted, “God knows how I missed the per outfit part. But we pay [redacted] USD for three outfits.” Atay refused the amount, pointing to a mistake on the brand’s part, and requested that it be rectified.

The manager allegedly said the complaint had been forwarded to an undisclosed party.

When Atay reached out to Butt directly via her Instagram DMs, she was allegedly brushed off. According to a screenshot of their exchange shared by Atay, Butt said, “Okay… so, I don’t handle this otherwise I would’ve talked to you myself. Regarding payments… I don’t handle them.”

In her videos, Atay claimed that she had been negotiating with the brand for three months, only to be told that the payments were intended “per social media reel” — a term she flatly denies ever agreeing to. She also alleged that the team had deleted parts of their communication once her husband got involved in an attempt to mediate.

“They’ve wasted my time, dodged complete payment, and treated me unprofessionally,” she claimed.

Maria B’s response

On Wednesday, the brand issued a formal statement calling the situation a “payment misunderstanding” and criticising Atay for what they say is “defamatory content” against the brand and its founder.

“An initial payment was made, and the issue of the remaining amount was acknowledged. While there was a regrettable lag in communication, it was unintentional,” the statement read. “Full payment was offered, and multiple attempts were made to resolve the matter privately.”

It concluded by noting that legal options were being considered to protect the brand’s reputation.

Butt threatens legal action

Butt posted a video message on her personal Instagram account on Wednesday to address the issue. She captioned it, “I was quiet for a reason… but now that we are going to court… here you go…” In the video, she suggested the fault of the whole “misunderstanding” lay with a “junior PR girl” who had misunderstood the payment terms, adding that the influencer had received clothes worth “lacs” in addition to the partial payment.

“What do I do with the PR girl? She made a mistake. Do I kill her? Do I fire her? Do I throw her under the bus? At Maria B we don’t do that,” Butt said, adding that Atay had refused to resolve the issue privately and instead chose to make “sensational videos” for views.

She also alleged that her team had reached out to Atay, offering to pay the remaining dues on the condition that she not post any further videos — a request Atay declined.

‘Maria B has blocked me’

After Butt’s videos were posted, Atay shared more videos on her stories in which she claimed Maria B had blocked her. “You guys are sending me so many Maria B reels but I can’t see them because she has blocked me. If she unblocks me, we can talk like people. But she in unable to face the truth. She cannot bear to apologise. That’s why she has blocked me and other people. I didn’t block anyone because I am honest.”

Atay claimed that Maria B’s response lacks substance: “She has no proof. If she did, she too would’ve shared it on Instagram.” She added that she had told Maria B’s team that a public apology could resolve the matter but was instead met with threats of legal action. “That’s fine by me,” she said. “We will meet in court then. I have all the proof, all the screenshots.”

Butt also shared a screenshot of a story from academic and activist Dr Mehrub Awan to write, “Why is the LGTV community so happy? Video coming next.” Awan had reshared Atay’s video in which she called out Butt.

Responding to this, Atay wrote in her stories, “Funny how Maria B is now associating me with LGBT just because they are sharing my reels on their channels out of their past hatred towards Maria B.”

The designer then attempted to clarify in her stories that her remarks weren’t directed at Atay, but rather at how the controversy was allegedly being “hyped” by what she referred to as the “LGTV-friendly media.”

“No influencer can be a part of this satanic movement,” Butt declared in a follow-up story.

Atay files legal notice

Atay’s legal notice, dated April 24 and filed on her behalf by her counsel Rana Intezar, demands Butt pay $8,000 within seven days of receipt of the notice as well as post a “written public apology across all platforms where such defamatory material was posted”.

The noticed stated that when Atay “rightfully demanded the remaining agreed payment, instead of resolving the matter professionally, Maria B began a malicious defamation campaign on social media”.

“The brand falsely accused my client of demanding ‘extra charges’ and misled the public by claiming they had been arranging meetings to settle the dispute, whereas no meetings ever took place. Due to your baseless and defamatory statements targeting our client, especially relating to sensitive and untrue allegations about LGBTQ affiliations and script involvement, Ms Türkan Atay has suffered immense mental distress, emotional trauma and reputational damage both personally and professionally,” read the notice.

It added that Atay experienced a “significant loss of followers and engagement on social media, directly impacting her professional image and future opportunities”.

Atay’s notice states that failure to comply with these demands within the stipulated time will compel her to initiate appropriate legal action against the designer.