French Director Accuses T- Series Banner Film ‘Saaho’ of Plagiarism

New Delhi (Sputnik): Amid reports of the Tollywood film “Saaho” emerging as the second-highest film in worldwide box office collection, beating “Fast and Furious: Hobbs & Shaw”, French director Jerome Salle has slammed the film’s maker for allegedly copying his movie “Largo Winch”.

The film, produced under T-Series' banner, starring Bollywood actress Sharaddha Kapoor and Telugu film actor Prabhas, has been accused of plagiarism.

Jerome came to know about the Indian film's scenes resembling his 2008 action film after several Twitter users tagged him, pointing out the resemblance to his directed “Largo Winch”, which apparently didn’t do well at the box-office.

The French director earlier made similar accusations of plagiarism against director Pawan Kalyan's Telugu-language film “Agnyaathavaasi”. He has now claimed that his work has been stolen by the makers of “Saaho”, while sarcastically advising in a tweet to “at least do it properly”.

It seems this second "freemake" of Largo Winch is as bad as the first one. So please Telugu directors, if you steal my work, at least do it properly?

And as my "Indian career" tweet was of course ironic, I'm sorry but I'm not gonna be able to help. https://t.co/DWpQJ8Vyi0

— Jérôme Salle (@Jerome_Salle) September 1, 2019

However, the makers of "Saaho" are yet to comment on the allegations.

Earlier in 2018, Jerome threatened T-Series with legal action for copying his film.

Indian cinema has all the necessary talent and creativity for not having to plagiarize. And the silence from #Agnathavaasi team since one week is deafening. So let’s take action now. #LegalNotice

— Jérôme Salle (@Jerome_Salle) January 18, 2018

I’m afraid a settlement with T-series will not be enough. It’s not only about India. The movie #Agnyaathavaasi has been released worldwide yesterday. https://t.co/FUXkNSZ2fO

— Jérôme Salle (@Jerome_Salle) January 10, 2018

The film Saaho seems to have attracted unsolicited attention in the past as well for plagiarism.

Indo-Canadian actress Lisa Ray earlier had accused the makers of copying the poster of the film’s song “Baby Won't You Tell Me”. She has stated in an Instagram post that the theft of creative work by big-budget films is totally unacceptable.

View this post on Instagram

What is creativity? What is art? Where does it come from? We feel what it is not. It’s not derived from your social status. Nor your job title. Nor your appearance. Creativity and its sister Art reach us from the sweet spot of the universe- the soul you might say. But I do know that the creator- artist is the channel for it. Let me tell you how hard it is to birth anything original or authentic. I personally labored for years over my book, quelled the doubts and noise from others and didn’t emerge until I was almost undone. And when I was moving through dark spaces of self-doubt or hitting creative walls I would turn to the work that @shiloshivsuleman puts out into the world and shares on her Instagram handle for inspiration. I can recognize when a creator works honourably and deeply, bleeding, sacrificing, unsleeping, stretching herself in the direction of emotional bravery to produce work that births those feelings we all look for in day to day life. To feel inspired. To feel alive. That’s why when something dishonorable happens, we need to stand up and speak up. To hold up a mirror to these makers to make them understand THIS IS NOT RIGHT. It’s come to light that a big budget film production has ripped off one of Shilo’s original creations. This is NOT inspiration but blatant theft. In no world, is this acceptable. The production did not contact the creator, ask her permission nor offer to collaborate or offer a credit. Nothing. This is not right. I believed the Hindi film industry was evolving necessarily past stealing storylines and rampant plagiarism but the producers of Shahoo have obviously not gotten the memo when it comes to art. Here’s the thing- Creators are worthy of worship. What they produce are more lasting and precious so than all the other ‘things’ we accumulate that can be taken away. Let’s hold these producers accountable for their infuriating, dishonourable action. How would you feel if a thief slid into your home and took away your most prized possessions? Your heart. Your soul. And your livelihood. Image @dietsabya

A post shared by lisaraniray (@lisaraniray) on Aug 30, 2019 at 5:05am PDT