Deepika Padukone's new denim commercial has landed the makers in hot water for ‘intellectual theft’. Writer-director Sooni Taraporevala has called out the production designer for blatantly copying the set from her 2020 Netflix film, Yeh Ballet. “Are you so creatively bankrupt?” asked Taraporevala, who is the writer of Mississippi Masala (1991), The Namesake (2006) and the Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay (1988).

In an Instagram post, she wrote, “I was shocked to see our Yeh Ballet dance studio set in the ad because it was created out of a derelict space by production designer Shailaja Sharma, and dismantled after the shoot. No such dance studio exists in Mumbai, which is why we built it.”