Kantara: Thaikkudam Bridge to seek legal action in Navarasam-Varaha Roopam plagiarism issue

Several days after the release of Rishab Shetty’s Kantara, when the film began to be referred to as a divine blockbuster, with the song, Varaha Roopam Daiva Va Rishtam, giving the last moments of the film an extra edge, there were whispers about the originality of the song. Several netizens who’d heard the song thought it sounded familiar and soon enough the source material was unearthed.

Music director Ajaneesh Loknath’s composition was way too similar to a five-year-old song by popular band Thaikkudam Bridge, called Navarasam. OTTplay had reported this at the time when comments began pouring in on social media about this alleged case of plagiarism.

Read more: Kantara controversy: Did Ajaneesh Loknath lift Thaikkudam Bridge’s Navarasam for Varaha Roopam? 

Here are both the songs: 

Navarasam by Thaikkudam Bridge 

Varaha Roopam from Kantara  

When asked by the media about the allegation, Ajaneesh had said he was inspired by Thaikkudam Bridge’s musical style and maintained that his composition was original. The band, though, doesn’t buy this argument. Taking to social media, Thaikkudam Bridge sought the support of its listeners as they are set to seek legal action against the creative team of Kantara for what they say is a blatant infringement of copyright laws.

“We would like our listeners to know that Thaikkudam Bridge is in no way or form affiliated with "Kantara". The unavoidable similarities between our IP "Navarasam" and "Varaha Roopam" in terms of audio is therefore a blatant infringement of copyright laws. From our standpoint the line between "Inspired" and "Plagiarized" is distinct and indisputable and therefore we will be seeking legal action against the creative team responsible for this. There has been no acknowledgement of our rights over the content and the song is propagated as an original piece of work by the movie's creative team. We request the support of our listeners and encourage you to spread the word about the same. Also request our fellow artistes to share and raise your views protecting music copy right,” read their social media post, on which they’d tagged producers Hombale Films, director Rishab Shetty and Ajaneesh.

Since the post last night, Thaikkudam Bridge has had an outpouring of love and support. Several fans thought that the makers of Kantara had purchased the rights to the song, which, as it turns out, is not the case. Some point out that the totally unexpected success and reach of Kantara is what got people to notice the song. Had it remained a Kannada film that only did a decent amount of business in Karnataka, this copyright issue would have perhaps not come up.