Alpha plagiarism row: Alia Bhatt’s new poster accused of being copied from Dune

Alpha and Dune posters. Pics via X

A day after dropping the intense action-packed teaser of YRF's highly anticipated film Alpha, the makers on Friday unveiled a new poster of the film featuring Alia Bhatt, Sharvari, Bobby Deol and Anil Kapoor. However, just like the teaser, the poster has now sparked a wave of reactions online, with many netizens accusing the makers of copying after they pointed out similarities with a poster of Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya-starrer Dune.

Alpha's latest poster reminds viewers of Dune

The newly unveiled poster showcases the ensemble cast in a rugged, intense setting. The poster features a sepia-toned, muted colour palette with a desert-like backdrop that sets a gritty, futuristic tone. Sharing the poster on their social media handles, the makers wrote, "THE αLPHA GANG!"

However, soon after the poster was unveiled, social media users began pointing out that the new visual bears a striking resemblance to the poster of the Hollywood film Dune. They shared the poster of Alpha alongside that of Dune, starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, and Zendaya, with both placed side-by-side. Many noted that the composition, colour grading, and overall mood of the two images felt almost similar.

Notably, this comes just a day after the teaser of Alpha sparked similar discussions online. Many pointed out that the opening scene of the teaser was similar to a scene in the French classic film, La Femme Nikita. Many even pointed out that both narratives were also similar, revolving around a young woman being recruited, trained and transformed into a lethal assassin by powerful organisations or a mentor figure.

Netizens react

One X user went on to call the new Alpha poser "Dune-coded," while another one joked that a simple AI prompt inspired by Dune could possibly generate a similar aesthetic. One user wrote, "I thought it's a Dune 3 poster," while another said, "So Dune coded, kwool poster btw." One user commented, "Just one AI prompt with the Dune poster is enough to make this alpha poster."

The similarities in the two posters was also discussed widely on Reddit, where one user pointed out, "This seems like Dune." Another user commented, "Dune was my first thought lookin at this lol."