Band Thaikkudam Bridge alleges Kannada film 'Kantara' plagiarised their song

Kantara, the Kannada film that attained massive pan-India success ever since its release on September 30, fell prey to a plagiarism controversy.

On Monday, Thaikkudam Bridge, the popular Kerala-based multi-genre music band, warned a legal action against the makers of the ecological thriller.

In a post shared on all their social media accounts, the band pointed out the uncanny similarities between their song 'Navarasam', sung by Vipin Lal and 'Varaha roopam' from Kantara, sung by Ajaneesh Loknath and Sai Vignesh. Ajaneesh has also scored the music.

Read | I have produced sounds with a native touch in 'Kantara': Ajaneesh

"We would like our listeners to know that Thaikkudam Bridge is no way or form affiliated with Kantara. The unavoidable similarities between our LP 'Navarasam' and 'Varaha roopam' in terms of audio is therefore a blatant infringement of copyright laws," said the Kochi-based band.

It further added, "From our standpoint, the line between "inspired" and "plagiarised" is distinct and indisputable and therefore, we will be seeking legal action against the creative team responsible for this. There has been no acknowledgement of our rights over the content and the song is propagated as original piece of work by the movie's creative team."

The talks about the hit Kantara song being 'inspired' from 'Navarasam' had been doing the rounds on social media in the last couple of weeks. In a recent interview with DH, responding to people's observation, Ajaneesh had said that he was only "inspired from the band's music style" and asserted that "songs and score of Kantara were original".

Kantara, written, and directed by Rishab Shetty, who also plays the lead, is running to packed houses across the country. In Karnataka alone, the film has witnessed 1 crore footfall, a record. The film has been widely acclaimed for its perfect blend of folklore and native drama and splendid performance by Shetty.