French Director Calls Saaho a ‘Freemake’ of His Film ‘Largo Winch’

Twitter users found similarities between the two films.

Posters of Saaho and Largo Winch

(Photo: Twitter)

Since its release, Saaho has been in the news for various reasons. Be it the record-breaking collections it is making at the box-office, or the allegations of plagiarism it has been facing, the movie has been at the centre of controversies for some time now.

Just days after actor Lisa Ray accused the makers of plagiarism, French director Jerome Salle has alleged that the film is a ‘freemake’ of his 2008 thriller Largo Winch. After a lot of Twitter users tagged him in posts about Saaho, the director found a lot of similarities between the two films and asked the makers to ‘at least copy his film properly.’

Largo Winch is French action thriller where, after a powerful billionaire is murdered, his secret adoptive son must race to prove his legitimacy, find his father's killers and stop them from taking over his financial empire.

Watch the trailers of the two films here:

This isn’t the first time, however, Largo Winch has been allegedly copied. In 2018, director Trivikram Srinivas was accused of copying the same film for his Agnyaathavaasi. Jerome Salle had then said, “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.”

This comes just a few days after Lisa Ray accused Saaho makers of copying an artwork of contemporary artist Shilo Shiv Suleman, and used it in one of their posters of the song Baby Won’t You Tell Me. Lisa shared the two pictures, one of the original artwork and the other of a similar image featuring Prabhas and Shraddha Kapoor's photos on it.

She wrote: “…We need to stand up and speak up. To hold up a mirror to these makers to make them understand THIS IS NOT RIGHT. It's come to light that a big budget film production has ripped off one of Shilo's original creations. This is NOT inspiration but blatant theft. In no world, is this acceptable. The production did not contact the creator, asking her permission or offer to collaborate or offering a credit.”