New Delhi: Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone's latest advertisement commercial for international clothing brand Levis is mired in a controversy over plagiarism.
Filmmaker Sooni Taraporevala, who made 'Yeh Ballet' called out to the makers of this ad film accusing them of intellectual theft. She alleged in her long social media post that the director of this ad saw her movie and used the same set without any acknowledgment, passing it off as their very own.
She wrote: A couple of days ago @cindy_jourdain brought this @levis_in ad to my attention. I was shocked to see our Yeh Ballet dance studio set in this ad, because it was conceptualized & created out of a derelict space by Shailaja Sharma @shalzoid (our PD) from scratch and dismantled after our shoot. Basically @nadiaeye (the director of this ad) saw Yeh Ballet and decided to plagiarize our set down to the very last detail (swipe for screenshot). Would Levi’s and the director ever think of doing that in the west without permission / acknowledgment, and passing it off as their own creative work? This is not homage this is intellectual theft! It’s SO unfair to our wonderful production designer @shalzoid to have her work ripped off like that.
Copycat culture in India needs to be called out and cancelled. You would think a foreign production company and director would know better. Are you so creatively bankrupt? What were you thinking? @levis_in @nadiaeye @offroadfilms @rupinsuchak @newland.tv
PS. contrary to what clickbait news headlines say, this has nothing to do with Deepika Padukone or anyone else in the cast.
Nonetheless, the filmmaker did mention that this has nothing to do with the lead face of the brand - Deepika Padukone.
