Director, producer of 'Kantara' appear before investigating officers of Kozhikode Town police station and record their statement.
Vijay Kirgandur, and Rishab Shetty speaking to media in Kozhikode. (Screengrab)
The director and producer of the Kannada superhit movie ‘Kantara‘ appeared before the investigating officers of the Kozhikode Town police station for the second consecutive day on Monday, 13 February, and recorded their statement in connection with the copyright infringement case of the song ‘Varaha Roopam’ in the film.
“They have denied the allegation that the song ‘Varaha Roopam’ is a plagiarised version of the song ‘Navarasam’ of Thaikoodam Bridge. They assert that they made the song on their own using different ragas and Carnatic vocals,” Kozhikode Town Police Station Assistant Sub Inspector of Police (ASI) Muhammad Shabeer told South First.
Navarasam is a song composed by Thaikoodam Bridge, a Kerala-based Malayalam rock band, almost five years ago. The media firm Mathrubhoomi Printing and Publishing Company owns the copyright of the song.
According to the police, the producer, Vijay Kirgandur, and actor-director Rishab Shetty appeared before them on Sunday and Monday as per the direction of the Kerala High Court.
“Since they have denied the plagiarism allegation against them, the two songs — ‘Navarasam’ and ‘Varaha Roopam’ — will be compared with the help of experts, both musicians and technicians. We will be filing the final report once this process is completed,” said Shabeer.
Further proceedings regarding the copyright infringement case against the makers of Kantara and ‘Varaha Roopam’ will take place only after the Kozhikode police file their report.
“We will file a report supporting the makers of Kantara only if the experts find no similarity between ‘Varaha Roopam’ and ‘Navarasam’. If they find that it is plagiarised, further action will follow,” added Shabeer.
On 8 February, the Kerala High Court allowed the makers of Kantara anticipatory bail with certain conditions in place. The conditions were later set aside by the Supreme Court on Friday, after a special leave petition (SLP) was filed before the apex court, challenging the high court order.
However, the high court’s directive to appear before the investigating officer remained unchanged, following which they appeared before the Kozhikode police.
On Monday, Rishab Shetty also had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Karnataka to inaugurate the Aero India show in Bengaluru.
Inspiring meeting PM @narendramodi ಅವರು as we discussed role of Entertainment industry in shaping New India and Progressive Karnataka. Proud to contribute towards #BuildingABetterIndia 🇮🇳 Your visionary leadership inspires us & your encouragement means the world to us @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/M95vv2cJk2
— Rishab Shetty (@shetty_rishab) February 13, 2023
The controversy began on 24 October, 2022, when the popular Kerala-based rock band Thaikkudam Bridge said on their Facebook page that their music album ‘Navarasam’ had been plagiarised to make ‘Varaha Roopam’ in Kantara.
On an earlier occasion, speaking to South First, Thaikkudam Bridge’s band manager Sujith Unnithan said, “Our friends from the music community thought we gave the rights of Navarasam to the producers of Kantara. But the song is a total rip-off, including the guitar riffs, drum patterns, and everything. You can understand it if you listen to both songs. Musicians will definitely understand and this can even be identified by the general public.”
On 28 October, the Kozhikode sessions court judge passed an ad-interim order issuing a temporary injunction restraining the makers, and streaming services from playing ‘Varaha Roopam’ until the disposal of the suit.
On 5 November last year, Mathrubhoomi Printing and Publishing Company — the copyright owners of Navarasam — filed a complaint before the Kozhikode Town police station and an FIR against Hombale films and others for the offences punishable under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957.
Mathrubhumi also filed a case in this regard with the Palakkad district court.
The Kozhikode sessions court and the Palakkad district court — on 25 November and 3 December, respectively — held that the cases had to be transferred to a commercial court, stating that the dispute is commercial in nature and that they had no jurisdiction to try such a commercial dispute.
After the petitioners challenged this the high court clarified that the lower court has the jurisdiction to settle the dispute and granted a stay of operation of the lower court order.
On 21 January, in response to the complaint filed by Mathrubhumi at the Kozhikode Town police station, the makers of Kantara applied for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1972.
The high court, on 8 February, allowed the anticipatory bail imposing certain conditions on the petitioners.
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