'Inspired' much? Phantom poster looks suspiciously similar to video game cover

Bollywood’s ‘inspiration’ from the West (which often borders on imitation) is legendary. From music to movie ideas to entire movies, plenty of Bollywood’s content is inspired from other film industries. Which is why when we see a poster for a new film and find it to be similar to somethings we have already seen, it comes as no surprise. The latest entrant to this club is Phantom, Kabir Khan’s terror-drama whose first look was revealed recently. The two posters feature Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif who are blindfolded with a tricolor flag with unkempt hair and bruised faces with the iconic Mumbai hotel Taj burning in the background of the poster makes quite the statement.The film is an adaption of S Hussain Zaidi’s recent novel, Mumbai Avengers and is said to be based on the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The posters look intense and have generated quite a buzz on social media for more than just their content. People on Twitter were quick to point out that the Phantom posters look suspiciously familiar to another poster, one that came out almost four years back. Don’t believe us? Check out the below photo [caption id=“attachment_2361182” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] The posters for Phantom and Homefront.[/caption] The poster that inspired Phantom belongs to ‘Homefront’ a first-person shooter video game and was released in 2011. It shows a soldier’s face similar bruised, bloodied and blindfolded with a red flag, very similar to that of North Korea. Understandably, it’s a war-based game and is full of action, just as Phantom promises to be.

This is not the first time that a Kabir Khan movie poster looks very similar to that of a video game. One of the posters of his 2012 film Ek Tha Tiger starring Katrina Kaif and Salman Khan was called out on social networking sites for being the replica of a video game cover. When placed next to each other, both show the armed hero with his back to the camera facing a city. [caption id=“attachment_2361208” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”] Same, same but different?[/caption] For someone who has garnered great box-office hits, the lack of imagination in posters seems rather surprising. And Twitterati never miss a thing! Next time, try modifying the inspiration a little, maybe? Bonus, here’s the very forgettable Drona poster, also very much inspired from the video game Prince of Persia.