NEW DELHI: The Delhi HC on Wednesday set aside an interim order against composer A.R. Rahman in a copyright dispute over ‘Veera Raja Veera’ from the 2023 film Ponniyin Selvan 2.
A Division Bench of Justices C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla passed the order on Rahman’s appeal against a single-judge ruling of April 25. “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 suit was brought by vocalist Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar, who alleged that Rahman and Productions used a classical composition titled ‘Shiva Stuti’, composed by the Junior Dagar Brothers, the late N. Faiyazuddin Dagar and the late Zahiruddin Dagar, in 1970s. Dagar says the copyright passed to him through an oral family settlement after their deaths, and alleged it was shared with Rahman without his authorisation.
The single-judge had previously ordered that Dagar brothers’ be credited online, costs of Rs 2 lakh. The composer Rahman maintained that Shiva Stuti is a traditional composition in the public domain and that ‘Veera Raja Veera’ is an original work with 227 distinct musical layers.