Delhi High Court grants relief to AR Rahman in copyright case over 'Veera Raja Veera' song

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday set aside an interim injunction issued against music composer AR Rahman by a single-judge 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)..A Division Bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla passed the order on an appeal moved by Rahman. "We have allowed the appeal. We have authored concurrent opinions. We have set aside the impugned order by the single-judge on principle," the Court said. The Court, however, clarified that it has not gone into the aspect of infringement. .Indian classical singer Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar, a Padma Shri awardee, had filed a copyright infringement suit before the single-judge 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. Dagar alleged that while Veera Raja Veera contains different lyrics, its taal, beat and musical structure are identical to Shiva Stuti, which was performed globally by the Junior Dagar brothers and included in albums released by PAN Records.However, Rahman 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 Veera Raja Veera is an original work, composed using Western musical fundamentals with 227 distinct layers, far beyond the conventions of Hindustani classical music..On April 25, a single-judge ruled in favour of Dagar on his interim injunction application. It directed Rahman and the movie producers to give credit to the Dagar brothers on all online platforms. The Court also imposed costs of ₹2 lakh and asked Rahman and the producers to deposit a sum of ₹2 crore. Rahman then appealed against the order, and on May 6, the interim injunction was stayed by a Division Bench. The Division Bench also stayed the costs imposed on Rahman and the producers. However, it directed them to deposit a sum of ₹2 crore in accordance with the single-judge's order. It clarified that the direction for deposit was not an expression on the merits of the appeal..Advocates Saikrishna Rajagopal, Sneha Jain, Vivek Ayyagari, Akshat Agrawal, Kuber Mahajan, Vishnavi Rao and Arunima Nair of Saikrishna & Associates represented AR Rahman. Advocates Neel Mason, Arjun Harkauli, Vihan Dang, Ujjawal Bhargava and Abeer Shandilya of Mason and Associates represented Dagar.