Kalki 2898 AD starring Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone landed in controversy after a South Korean artist accused the makers of stealing his artwork.
Directed by Nag Ashwin, the movie’s trailer dropped on June 10 and soon gained traction on social media for its heavy VFX works.
Fans drew parallels between Kalki 2898 AD’s post-apocalyptic world and Hollywood movies like Dune and Mad Max movies.
The film follows a modern-day avatar of Hindu god Vishnu, who is believed to have descended to Earth to protect the world from evil forces.
The sci-fi title, believed to be the most expensive Indian film with a budget of $72 million, is set to be released in cinemas worldwide on June 27 in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and English languages.
Read more: WATCH: Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan starrer Kalki 2898 AD trailer
However, it landed in a controversy after a South Korean concept illustrator and designer Sung Choi accused the makers of Kalki 2898 AD of copying his artwork, an Indian media outlet reported.
Sharing a collage featuring his illustration and a still from the film’s trailer in a now-deleted Instagram post, he wrote, “Unauthorised use of the artwork is a bad practice. This makes me question doing art in this lawless environment. @Kalki2898AD @VyjayanthiFilms #kalki2898ad.”
Sung Choi, who has worked with Marvel Studios, Disney and Warner Bros, claimed that the original artwork was published on his website ten years ago.
Following Sung Choi’s Instagram post, users flooded the comment section to show support for the artist and condemned the makers of Kalki 2898 AD.
A user commented, “I hope you pursue legal action if possible. This is awful.”
Another suggested that the trailer gave the vibes of Hollywood sci-fi movies such as Epoch, Mad Max, Dune, and other films.
“A lot of designs from the trailer are ripped off from the Halo series and Death Stranding too. Idk how some of the concept designers who worked on the film can stay silent,” the user wrote.
A comment read, “This is shameful and disappointing. They just copied and pasted a 10-year-old artwork on literally the first frame of the trailer.”
It is pertinent to mention that the Indian sci-fi stars Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Kamal Haasan, and Disha Patani.
