Artist claims Adipurush team plagiarised his artwork for Prabhas' look in film: 'They are stealing and exploiting...'

Prabhas and Kriti Sanon-starrer Adipurush faced backlash last year when the teaser of the film was released. Fans criticized the CGI and VFX in the teaser and the makers decided to postpone the release of the film to make some changes. Now, an artist has claimed that the team has plagiarised his artwork without informing or giving due compensation to him, using it to develop the look of Prabhas in the film.

Adipurush, based on the Ramayana, stars Prabhas as Raghava, Kriti Sanon as Janaki, and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh, characters based on Lord Ram, Sita, and Ravana respectively. The film's look and feel has been the subject of countless debates and discussions. On Sunday, an independent creator named Pratik Sanghar shared a post on Reddit with screenshots of his artwork and a Facebook post from someone claiming to be the designer for the film.

Adipurush Team plagiarized my artwork without informimg Or compensating me.
by u/Either-Departure8855 in BollyBlindsNGossip

The Facebook post, made by one T P Vijayan, was shared last October on Prabhas' birthday. It has an artwork almost identical to the one shared by Sanghar and the caption read, “A Very Happy Birthday to our #Raghava, Prabhas Garu!!! Here's the Exclusive Official Look Development Art made by me for the film, Adipurush Raghava Look Development Art. This is the look development artwork which I have created #Prabhas as Raghava with a completely raw and rugged appearance, with a burnt saffron-colored dhoti embellished with garlands of dried blueberry seeds, a wooden quiver filled with kodanda arrows, triceps bound with talismans and feet with wooden padukas.”

Sharing side-by-side comparisons of the Facebook post and his original artwork from last year, Sanghar wrote, "I am a concept artist from India. I made my exploration for Lord Shri Ram's possible looks for a Ramayan Epic if it were ever to be made. This was around a year ago. And the official concept artist working on Adipurush literally stole my artwork mix matched it with my similar artwork and called it their own that too without informing me or providing me any compensation. This is one of the reasons for the failure of such a project. People working on it have no passion or love for the project instead they are finding and using cheap tricks to make this project."

Adding that he would provide links to both the posts, Sanghar said he had screenshots because he believed the post would be taken down after his. "They are stealing and exploiting artists," he added. Netizens came in support of the artist and consoled him. One of them wrote, “So Sorry! I hope the team properly credits you for your excellent work.” Another wrote, “OMG this is horrible.”

However, a few did point out that TP Vijayan was most likely an independent creator and not associated with the film. No official page associated with Adipurush or Prabhas has shared these artworks, they argued. "It doesn't look like TP Vijayan is in any way associated with Adipurush. Seems more like an individual trying to associate himself with a project for obvious reasons," read one comment. So far, neither TP Vijayan nor the team of Adipurush has reacted to the allegations.

Helmed by Om Raut, Adipurush is produced by Bhushan Kumar, Rajesh Mohanan, and Krishan Kumar. The film also stars Sunny Singh, Sonal Chauhan, and Devdata Nage among others in key roles. Earlier, the film was supposed to release in January this year but is now scheduled to release on June 16, 2023.

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