Hours after the IIFA Awards 2018 aired on television on Sunday, the organisers of the gala found plagiarism charges levelled against them. In a Facebook post, Saba Arif, an independent content creator, accused them of lifting her Sridevi tribute video, titled Last Empress: A Tribute to Sridevi.

Outraged that the organisers ran her video without her permission or giving due credit, Arif tells mid-day, "They conveniently passed it as their own video. My dad is a big Sridevi fan and asked me to watch the telecast with him. When they played the tribute, I was stunned. If they are so incompetent that they can't create their own videos, they have no right to steal someone else's work."