Kantara plagiarism row: Kerala HC stays FIR against Prithviraj Sukumaran on Varaharoopam song

The Kerala High Court has stayed the FIR registered against Malayalam actor and producer Prithviraj Sukumaran in connection with the alleged copyright infringement of the song Varaharoopam from the Kannada movie Kantara. Prithviraj was the distributor of the film in Kerala.

While staying the FIR, the Single Bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas observed, “As a mere distributor of the film in Kerala, the actor was unnecessarily being dragged into and that initiating copyright infringement proceedings against him was stretching it too far. Prima facie, I am satisfied that the petitioner as a distributor of a movie cannot be mulcted with infringement of copyright merely for distributing a movie in one of the states in the country. As a director of the Company Prithviraj Productions Private Limited, merely facilitated the distribution of the film in Kerala and was not involved in the production of the film or in the making of its music in any capacity. The company stopped the distribution of the film on 04.11.2022. The role of his company as a distributor of the film is limited to acting as an intermediary that distributes the films through theatres after obtaining distribution rights from the producer.”

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The stay was on a petition filed by Prithviraj for quashing the FIR registered against him at the Kozhikode Town Police Station alleging that the song Varaharoopam from the movie Kantara has been plagiarised from the song Navarasam.

The FIR was registered on a complaint filed by Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd against the actor as director of the company Pithviraj Productions Private Limited for an offense alleged under Section 63 of the Copyright Act. The allegation of the complainant is that the song is an unauthorised copy of the Navarasam song which was exhibited in Kappa TV owned by Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd.