In a new controversy, the Kalki makers have been accused of plagiarism as a Hollywood concept artist has pointed out that the opening scene of the trailer of ‘Kalki: 2898 A.D.’ has been taken without permission from his concept art.
Sung Choi, who is a concept artist in Hollywood and has worked with Marvel for multiple projects, has shared that the opening scene of Kalki is ripped off from his own art work. He also shared on X the trailer scene and his own artwork which he posted on YouTube 10 years ago. It is indeed a matter of shame and regret that such an ambitious project from India is resorting to such levels of plagiarism. The artist has said, “Unauthorized use of the artwork is a bad practice. I sometimes even question doing art in this lawless environment.”
Kalki is a huge project and it is compared to movies like Dune, or Blade Runner by some fans, but when such news comes, the ambition and hopes seem to fade away. Kalki is the first Indian movie of its kind, and there is no doubt about it, but the makers needed ti be more careful about being original and not directly taking unauthorized artworks from YouTube.
The makers are still silent on the matter and there have been no confession or official statement from them. But hopefully they will give Sung Choi his due credit, and also remove other ripped-off scenes from the movie, if there are any.