Rajinikanth’s 'Darbar' Poster Copied From Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 'Killing Gunther'? Designer Rubbishes Reports

Poster of Rajinikanth's upcoming film titled Darbar was released last week. The poster had the actor in the centre surrounded by elements from a cop's uniform like- a belt, shoes, cap, handcuffs and guns.

Soon after the poster was released, social media users started comparing the still to the poster of Hollywood film Killing Gunther, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger released in 2017. Twitter users called out the designer alleging that the poster is copied and accused him of plagiarism.

Clarifying the resemblance, poster designer Vinci Raj dismissed allegations saying he was honest while creating this poster. "After 'Kaala' and 'Kabali', I am fortunate to work with Rajinikanth sir for the third time. I am a huge Superstar fan. When I get a special opportunity like this, I know how responsible I need to be. I wanted to give my best for Thalaivar. I know how honest I was while creating this poster, it feels bad when someone says that I have copied the design from another poster," in.com quoted the designer as saying.

The designer stated that the original poster has been tampered by social media users to make it appear like that of Killing Gunther. "I am looking at this Hollywood poster for the very first time. In fact, they have changed the colour tone of my poster to make it similar to the other film's poster," he added.

The shooting of Darbar will begin from April 10. The poster suggests that the movie will hit the screens on Pongal Day, 2020.

A few days back, pictures of Rajinikanth from the film had leaked online. The leaked images were said to be from a recent photoshoot at a popular studio in Chennai. Before the leak, the photo of the costume designer getting ready for the photoshoot had surfaced on the internet and went viral.

Requesting fans to not share the pictures and wait for the official release, Rajinikanth’s representative had said in a statement, "I request all the Thalaivar fans not to share the leaked stills and try to preserve it until releases officially... kindly help us to do in a better way to all the fans (sic)."