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Journalism of Courage
First they drew attention with the G-strings in their videos. Now comes a real-life battle to spice up that picture.
Super Cassettes Industries has filed a suit against Sony Music Entertainment for releasing an audio cassette titled DJ Heart Remix, similar to the title of a Super Cassettes collection, DJ Hot Remix. R.P.S. Teji, additional district and sessions judge at the Tis Hazari courts, has restrained Sony from manufacturing, selling or advertising their album until further orders.
The story so far is that Super Cassettes under its label T-Series came out with DJ Hot Remix in August this year. The album comprised 15 tracks remixed from old Hindi film numbers such as Kaanta laga, Chadhti jawani and Saiyaan dil mein aana re. In September 2003, Sony launched DJ Heart Remix consisting of 12 tracks including Sony’s own remixed versions of Kaanta laga, Chadhti jawani and Saiyaan dil mein aana re.‘‘We have filed the suit on two grounds,’’ says Anil Kakkar, chief executive, media, T-Series. ‘‘One is that the album titles are phonetically similar. Secondly, Sony has also kept their inlay cards similar to ours so that it creates confusion in the buyers’ minds.’’
The court order putting a stop to further sale of Sony’s DJ Heart Remix came on September 4. An official for Sony told The Indian Express: ‘‘Yes, we have received a notice from the honourable court. And we will contest it in the court on October 13. We are confident of being proved correct.’’ Sources reveal that Sony Music has filed a counter suit against T-Series, but Sony’s legal department refused to give details.
Sony’s DJ Heart Remix continues to be available on sale. They are not releasing any further units. Incidentally, some of the numbers on DJ Hot Remix had already been released as remixes in an earlier T-Series collection entitled DJ Doll in December 2002. The video for Kaanta laga followed a month later. The current court battle won’t hurt either.
