India’s entertainment industry has been rocked by a round of high-profile copyright cases. Vandana Chatlani talks to Amarjit Singh about a dispute over a Bollywood soundtrack and its implications for artists and IP owners
The lawsuit against veteran film producer Rakesh Roshan in Bombay High Court in April was a show that audiences and the film fraternity are likely to remember for some time. The court upheld a claim that Roshan’s brother Rajesh, who produced the music for the film Krazzy 4, stole an original composition created by musician Ram Sampath.
According to Sampath, the Roshans took a track he created as part of an advertisement for Sony Ericsson and transformed it into songs that were heavily used in the soundtrack of Krazzy 4 and for promotional purposes.
The Roshans said they had sought permission and obtained a letter from Sony Ericsson before using the composition, and also said that Rajesh wrote the songs. The judge rejected their conflicting defences and issued an interim injunction on 10 April, the morning before the film’s scheduled release.
