Varaha Roopam: We have won the case; song to be back in Kantara soon, says Rishab Shetty

Ever since the controversy surrounding the copyright claim on Varaha Roopam, one of the most popular songs of Kantara, broke, its producer, Hombale Films and director Rishab Shetty, chose not to address it, waiting for justice from the courts. Rishab has finally broken his silence, after team Kantara emerged victorious in the case. Taking to social media he wrote, “We have won the case with the blessings of God. The song will be back on OTT soon.”

When Kantara came out, several netizens had pointed out that Varaha Roopam bore stark similarities to a song by Kerala-based band Thaikkudam Bridge, called Navarasam. At the time, when Ajaneesh was quizzed about this, he had said that he was inspired by the song, but maintained that Varaha Roopam was not a copy.

The song was considered the soul of the film, as it played in the beginning and mainly during the climax, which is what gave Kantara a ‘divine’ feel. Taking note of the similarities, Thaikkudam Bridge decided to seek legal recourse, as they felt that team Kantara should have approached them for rights to their song. Two district courts, Kozhikode and Palakkad, had stayed the use of the song on streaming platforms, forcing the team to replace it and run a different version of it when Kantara was released on Amazon Prime Video.

Fans were less than happy about the new version of the song and have been clamouring for the ‘original’ to be reinstated. Well, looks like that day won’t be far off. Hombale Films, which had taken down the lyrical video of Varaha Roopam from its official YouTube channel, has already put the song back.

Kantara was released on Amazon Prime Video in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam only, with the Hindi version expected on Netflix. Now that the legal issues are over, the Hindi version should drop soon.