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?
— Jérôme Salle (@Jerome_Salle) September 1, 2019
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
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.