AR Rahman and Madras Talkies face legal heat as Delhi High Court Today (April 25) finds ‘Veera Raja Veera’ nearly identical to ‘Shiva Stuti’. Court orders Rs 2 crore deposit and credit to original composers.
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today gave a temporary order on Friday in a copyright case related to the popular Tamil song ‘Veera Raja Veera’ from the 2023 movie Ponniyin Selvan 2 (PS2). The court gave this order against famous music composer AR Rahman and film production company Madras Talkies.
This case was filed by Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar, an Indian classical singer and Padma Shri award winner, in 2023. He told the court that the song Veera Raja Veera was copied from the spiritual song Shiva Stuti, which was originally created by his father Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar and uncle Zahiruddin Dagar.
He asked the court to stop the use of the song and to give him credit and compensation for using the original composition without permission.
The Court looked into Dagar’s request for immediate relief. Justice Prathiba M Singh, who gave the decision, clearly said:
“Veera Raja Veera is not merely based on or inspired from the song composition of ‘Shiva Stuti’ but is infact identical to it with certain changes.”
Because of this, the Court ordered AR Rahman and Madras Talkies to deposit Rs 2 crore with the court registry while the case is still going on. The court also noticed that at the beginning, Rahman and Madras Talkies did not give any credit to the original Dagar brothers for the music composition. Therefore, the Court directed the movie producers to now add proper credits for them in the movie wherever it is shown online.
As a penalty, the Court also ordered the defendants to pay a cost of Rs 2 lakh.
Dagar had said in his complaint that even though the lyrics of Veera Raja Veera are different, its taal (rhythm), beat, and musical structure are the same as Shiva Stuti. He also said that the Junior Dagar Brothers performed this piece worldwide, and it was also included in albums released by PAN Records.
On the other side, AR Rahman denied all the claims. He said that the song Shiva Stuti is a traditional Dhrupad genre composition, which means it is part of the public domain and is not owned by any one person.
He also explained that Veera Raja Veera is an original creation and it was made using Western musical methods. He said it had 227 different layers, and that it goes far beyond normal Hindustani classical music rules.
In this case, Dagar was represented by Advocate Neel Mason.
Senior Advocate Amit Sibal, who was instructed by Bharucha & Partners (including Kaushik Moitra – Partner, Vaishnavi Rao – Managing Associate, Karnika Vallabh – Counsel, and Subhalaxmi Sen – Senior Associate) appeared for AR Rahman.
The film production houses Madras Talkies and Lyca Productions were represented by Advocates Saikrishna Rajagopal and Sneha Jain.
CASE TITLE:
USTAD FAIYAZ WASIFUDDIN DAGAR V/s MR. A.R. RAHMAN & ORS.
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