The Delhi High Court, on Wednesday, September 24, set aside an interim injunction order that had restrained composer AR Rahman in a copyright infringement case linked to the song ‘Veera Raja Veera’ from the 2023 Tamil film Ponniyin Selvan 2.
A Division Bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla passed the order while hearing Rahman’s appeal against an April 25 ruling by a single-judge bench.
According to Bar and Bench, the Bench stated, “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, however, clarified that it had not gone into the aspect of infringement. The Bench allowed Rahman’s appeal “without going into the aspect of infringement,” and a detailed order is awaited.
Earlier this year, a single-judge order, delivered had ruled in favour of classical vocalist and Padma Shri awardee Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar, who alleged that ‘Veera Raja Veera’ copied his family’s 1970s composition ‘Shiva Stuti’, created by his father Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar and uncle Zahiruddin Dagar. The judge had found the two works “identical” save for a change in lyrics and directed Rahman and the film’s producers to give credit to the Dagar brothers, deposit Rs 2 crore with the court registry, and pay Rs 2 lakh in costs.
Dagar maintained that ‘Shiva Stuti’ was first performed in international concerts, including at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam in 1978, and that rights to the composition passed to him through a family arrangement. He argued that Rahman’s use of the piece was unauthorised and uncredited.
Rahman, however, contended that ‘Shiva Stuti’ was a traditional Dhrupad composition belonging to the public domain. His legal team argued that ‘Veera Raja Veera’ was an original composition built on Western musical fundamentals, layered with 227 distinct tracks, well beyond the conventions of Hindustani classical music.
The Division Bench had already stayed the single-judge’s injunction in May, allowing ‘Veera Raja Veera’ to remain online, though it directed Rahman and producers Madras Talkies and Lyca Productions to deposit the Rs 2 crore.