Days after actress Lisa Ray accused the makers of Saaho of plagiarism, the director of 2008 French thriller Largo Winch has claimed Prabhas’ new film is a copy of his. Jerome Salle learned about the similarities between his film and Saaho after several Twitter users tagged him in posts pointing out the resemblance. In a tweet, Mr Salle called Saaho the “second freemake of Largo Winch” and called it is ‘as bad as the first one.’ Last year, Jerome Salle had accused Pawan Kalyan’s Agnyaathavaasi of plagiarizing Largo Winch (more on that later). The makers of Saaho are yet to respond to the allegations.
In a tweet posted on September 1, Jerome Salle wrote: “It seems this second “freemake” of Largo Winch is as bad as the first one. I am pleasing to 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.” On August 30, a fan tweeted to Mr Salle: “Buddy another day and another free make of your Largo Winch movie in India #Saaho. You are the real Guruji.” Taking note of the tweet, Mr Salle responded: “I think I have a promising career in India.”
In 2018, director Trivikram Srinivas was accused of copying Largo Winch in his film Agnyaathavaasi. Jerome Salle had then pointed out: “Indian cinema has all the necessary talent and creativity for not having to plagiarize. In a series of tweets, he accused the makers of Agnyaathavaasi of maintaining a stunned silence on the issue.
“The actual reason for #Agnyaathvaasi ‘s flop could be due to the director copying a film- Largo Winch, directed by Jerome Salle- was something that even @PawanKalyan ‘s fans couldn’t digest.”
Screening at #LeBrady tonight. Great atmosphere thanks to the audience. I could’ve loved the movie but unfortunately the plot was too familiar.
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.
Earlier, Lisa Ray also accused the makers of Saaho of plagiarising contemporary artist Shilo Shiv Suleman’s artwork for a poster of the film’s song Baby Won’t You Tell Me. She also alleged that the makers did not ask the creator for her “permission or offer her a credit.” Calling out the makers in an Instagram post, Lisa Ray wrote: “What is creativity? What is art? Where does it come from? This is not inspiration but blatant theft. In no world, is this acceptable.”
Written and directed by Sujeeth, Saaho also features Chunky Panday, Mandira Bedi, Jackie Shroff, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Mahesh Manjrekar and Arun Vijay. It released in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil on August 29 to almost universally terrible reviews but has been piling up the crores at the box office, perhaps due to the Prabhas factor – Saaho is Prabhas’ first film after the mega-blockbuster two-part Baahubali.
