Director Atlee recently received an honorary doctorate from Sathyabama University in Chennai. While accepting the honour, the filmmaker not only opened up about his much-anticipated project with Allu Arjun and Deepika Padukone but also addressed long-standing plagiarism allegations—offering rare insight into his creative process and vision for Indian cinema’s future.

Atlee addressed the ongoing perception that scenes and characters in his films are borrowed or inspired by other works. Acknowledging the criticism, he noted that many believe his films resemble existing ones. However, he urged the audience to look deeper and offered a personal example from his own life to help them better understand his creative journey.

Atlee cited Vijay’s character Michael Rayappan from his 2019 film Bigil—a gangster-turned-football coach—as an example, revealing that it was inspired by Jeppiaar, the founder and chancellor of Sathyabama University. Reflecting on the moment his Mersal theme played during the ceremony, Atlee said he believes he earned the honorary doctorate through honesty and love, and pledged to continue making the country proud.

This statement from Atlee comes just two months after netizens drew attention to the striking resemblance between the poster of his upcoming film AA22 X A6, starring Allu Arjun, and the Hollywood sci-fi hit Dune. When the poster was unveiled in April, social media was quick to compare it to the Dune artwork featuring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, reigniting discussions around originality in Atlee’s work.