The virtual world has been abuzz about the streaks of similarities between Nag Ashwin’s created dystopian world of Kalki 2898 AD with Hollywood biggies such as Dune and Mad Max: Fury Road. Now, the makers have been accused of plagiarism by a South Korean artist Sung Choi, who has worked for Marvel Studios, Disney, Warner Bros, and Netflix Animation.

Sung took to social media to accuse the makers of picking his work without taking his approval. He shared a screenshot of the frame to assert his point.

The accusation

The scene in question is the opening scene of the Kalki 2898 AD trailer which shows a dystopian city. The scene is set in a post-apocalyptic world in the year 2898 AD, and he posted his own work, which was published 10 years ago, and both of the frames have striking similarity.

The concept illustrator and designer has called out the makers of Kalki 2898 AD, Vyjayanthi Movies, for seemingly copying his artwork.

Sharing the collage, he wrote, "Unauthorized use of the artwork is a bad practice. This makes me question doing art in this lawless environment. @Kalki2898AD @VyjayanthiFilms #kalki2898ad.”

Netizens express shock

After Sung called out the makers for plagiarising his work, social media users came forward to support him, and slam the film’s team. The much-anticipated sci-fi tentpole stars Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan and Disha Patani among others.

“I hope you pursue legal action if possible. This is awful,” wrote a user in the comments section of his Instagram post, with one person writing, “The whole trailer gives off the vibe of Epoch, Mad Max, Dune and other films. The trailer of the film gives me the vibe of Saga comic book series published by Image Comics. A lot of designs from the trailer of the film 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.”

Some people also took to Reddit to express his views, and asked him to sue the makers.

“This is shameful and disappointing. They just copied and pasted a 10-year-old artwork on literally the first frame of the trailer. Even the weapons and other stuff look directly ‘inspired’ by so many games and movies. I wonder what else people will spot which will be without any credits. I’m too afraid to post this in Tollywood sub because of fanboys,” read a post on Reddit.

There were some people who supported the director, saying, “Do you think Nag Ashwin knows how his VFX team got this image? He merely describes the scene and ‘experts’ deliver him the end product. Nag Ashwin is a decent person – let’s not assume anything.”

The film's team is yet to react to the accusation.

About Kalki 2898 AD

Kalki 2898 AD takes the viewers into a dystopian world where humans find it difficult to survive in the city of Kashi. Citizens and scientists look forward to incarnation while Ashwathama from Mahabharata returns after decades of hiding from the world. The film is scheduled to release on the big screen on June 27.