Days after the trailer of Nag Ashwin's highly anticipated film Kalki 2898 AD, starring Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan in lead roles, was released online, a Hollywood concept artist accused the makers of copying his work illegally. He even shared proof supporting his claim and called out the makers for their 'bad practice'.
The concept artist, identified as Sung Choi, has worked with studios like Marvel, Disney and Warner Bros. After the trailer of Kalki 2898 AD went viral online, he took to his X handle to share a frame of his work from 10 years ago, and another frame from Nag Ashwin's film, which seems to be an exact copy of the former.
"Unauthorized use of the artwork is a bad practice. This makes me question doing art in this lawless environment," he wrote, and also tagged the makers of Kalki 2898 AD.
As soon as Choi's post went viral, netizens stood up in his support and called out the makers of Kalki 2898 AD. "This is so horrible. The very first frame of the trailer is plagiarised. I wonder how much worse it gets," a user wrote, while another stated, "This is totally shame on them, the most sad thing is this is the intro shot of the production house."
The makers are yet to respond to Choi's claims.
After the posters of Kalki 2898 AD were unveiled by the makers, netizens had likened it with Timothy Chalamet's Dune. However, director Nag Ashwin had then commented that the similarities were drawn only "because of the sand".
Kalki 2898 AD also stars Disha Patani, Kamal Haasan, SS Rajamouli and Dulquer Salmaan among others in key roles. The film is slated to hit the silver screens on June 27, 2024.
