`Bahubali' a copy of Hollywood films?

HYDERABAD: Touted as the most expensive film ever made in Telugu ­ it has an eye-popping budget of over Rs 175 crore ­ Bahubali is also in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. And the main allegation against it is plagiarism in the disguise of `inspiration'.
The publicity posters of the film, directed by S S Rajamouli, bear a clear resemblance to a few Hollywood films released in the past.The posters, released at regular intervals to build up the hype, have made film enthusiasts do some digging into the past.
The scene in the very first poster ­ of a child being cra dled in outstretched arms in the water ­ has a striking resemblance to a poster of the Hollywood film `Simon Birch'. The film was directed by Mark Steven Johnson and was released in 1998.
Another poster of Bahubali, featuring Anushka Shetty, puts to rest any doubts about the director getting more than inspiration from another Hollywood film `The Book of Esther', directed by David A R White and re leased in 2013.
The director seems to have even taken a leaf out of a desi film, as another scene in a poster featuring protagonist Prabhas reminds the discerning eye of a similar scene from a Tamil film.
Bahubali, produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni, is set for release on July 10. The censors have already cleared it with a UA certificate, which means minors will have to be accompanied by adults. The film has been made in Telugu and Tamil and will be dubbed into Hindi and Malayalam. Representatives of Arka Mediaworks, the production company of Bahubali, could not be contacted for their reaction to the `copying' allegations. “They are all busy ,“ a person who answered the phone at Arka Mediaworks said. Another company official, when contacted had `no comments' to make.
Meanwhile, even the trailer of the film, that was released recently , points to the fact that the film has been heavily `inspired' by the Hollywood hit `300', at least in the technical aspects and some visuals.