AR Rahman faces setback in copyright suit before Delhi High Court over 'Veera Raja Veera' song

The Delhi High Court on Friday passed an interim order against music composer AR Rahman and production company Madras Talkies in a copyright infringement suit filed over the composition of the song ‘Veera Raja Veera’, which featured in the 2023 Tamil film Ponniyin Selvan 2 (PS2)..Indian classical singer Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar, a Padma Shri awardee, in 2023 had moved the Court alleging that the composition of the song was copied from the song Shiva Stuti, composed by his father Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar and uncle Zahiruddin Dagar. He had sought a permanent injunction restraining the defendants, including Rahman and Madras Talkies, from using the song, along with damages and the acknowledgment of moral rights..In the verdict pronounced today on Dagar's interim application, Justice Prathiba M Singh said ruled that song '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.Thus, the Court ordered Rahman and Madras Talkies to deposit ₹2 crore with the Registry during the pendency of the suit. It further observed that Rahman and Madras Talkies had not initially given any credit to the Junior Dagar brothers for the song composition and thus ordered the movie producer to add these credits to the movie on online platforms. Thus, a cost of ₹2 lakh was also imposed on the defendants..Dagar had alleged that while Veera Raja Veera contains different lyrics, its taal, beat, and musical structure are identical to Shiv Stuti, which was performed globally by the Junior Dagar Brothers and included in albums released by PAN Records.However, Rahman had denied the allegations, stating that Shiv Stuti is a traditional composition within the Dhrupad genre, part of the public domain. It was also argued that the Veera Raja Veera song is an original work, composed using Western musical fundamentals with 227 distinct layers, far beyond the conventions of Hindustani classical music..Advocates Neel Mason and Arjun Harkauli represented Dagar. .Senior Advocate Amit Sibal instructed by Bharucha & Partners (Kaushik Moitra - Partner, Vaishnavi Rao - Managing Associate, Karnika Vallabh - Counsel, Subhalaxmi Sen - Senior Associate) represented AR Rahman.Madras Talkies and Lyca Productions were represented by Advocates Saikrishna Rajagopal and Sneha Jain.Advocate Harsh Kaushik, instructed by ANM Global (Anushree Rauta, Equity Partner; Shwetank Tripathi, Associate Partner; Deepank Singhal) appeared for Tips Music..[Read Live Coverage]