Popular denim brand, Levi's, roped in Deepika Padukone as its global brand ambassador. Soon, an ad film featuring the actress went on air. However, the commercial has landed in trouble. Filmmaker Sooni Taraporevala has accused the makers of the ad of plagiarism. It was noticed that the backdrop of the ad was similar to the one in Sooni's Netflix film, Yeh Ballet.
Rupin Suchak, the production designer for Levi's ad featuring Deepika, agreed that the backdrop was identical to the one in Yeh Ballet and said the ad director Nadia Marquard Otzen wanted it that way. Reacting to a social media user's comment, Rupin said, "Yes we did :) in fact that’s what our director wanted so we had to recreate that."
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Sooni, slamming Nadia and Levi's for plagiarism, penned a note on Instagram that read, "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. No such dance studio exists in Mumbai which is why we built it. 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?"
Levi's is yet to issue a statement.
(Source: Instagram)
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