Complaint against ‘Saaho’ producers for allegedly not featuring product in film

The producers of Saaho – Vamshi Krishna Reddy, Pramod Uppalapati and Vikram Reddy of UV Creations – have been accused of cheating by Arctic Fox, a lifestyle brand that makes bags and other accessories, to tune of Rs 1.38 crore.

According to the complainant, Vijay Rao, marketing head of Bengaluru-based Outshiny India Pvt Ltd, the Saaho producers promised to feature their product in the movie and his company had paid Rs 37 lakh for the product placement. However, the product was not featured in the film as agreed, he claimed.

Alleging that the filmmakers and celebrity firm partner, Kwan Entertainment (South), had cheated them, Arctic Fox’s company representative filed the complaint at Madhapur police station.

In his complaint, Vijay Rao said that they paid Rs 37 lakh to the filmmakers and Rs 1.49 lakh to Kwan Entertainment to feature the product. Further, they spent an additional Rs 1 crore towards promotions for the film along with their product during Saaho’s release.

Speaking to TNM, the investigating officer B Veera Prasad said, “The complainant is claiming that they were cheated to the tune of Rs 1.38 crore. We are examining the case, and have sought a legal opinion on how to proceed with the case.”

Saaho, starring Prabhas and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead, was a big budget film that was released simultaneously in four languages – Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam – in August. The film marked Prabhas’ straight debut in Hindi, and Shraddha’s debut in Telugu.

The action thriller, made at a cost of Rs 350 crore, failed to impress both the audience and critics alike. However, according to the filmmakers despite the poor reviews, the film collected more than Rs 424 crore in all the languages within two weeks, including Rs 153 crore from the Hindi version.

 The film is slated to be released on online video streaming platform Amazon Prime video on Saturday.