Monday, March 21, 2011

Rahman to take legal action

AR Rahman is probably the only composer who keeps the rights of all the songs that he composes, with him.

He's not someone who takes kindly to anyone stealing his work. A soft drink commercial featuring Katrina Kaif has used his tune from Slumdog Millionaire track that introduces Latika (Freida Pinto) in the film. The Oscar-winning composer claims this has been done without his knowledge and is all set to use legal action.

Rahman has ordered his lawyers to look into the matter, and his officials are already in talks with T-series, the record company, to find out how the track could have gone to the mango drink label without the composer signing off on it. Rahman's aide confirms, "Yes, our legal team has contacted Bhushan Kumar for an explanation on how the track made its way out. As of now they have not responded. We are definitely contemplating action."

Meanwhile, Bhushan admits that Rahman's office wasn't informed about the development. "In normal circumstances, we don't have to ask for permission from composers, but with Rahman it is on a royalty basis, so he was informed, but his office wasn't and they contacted us. But all these misunderstandings have been sorted out as we have told them that in the near future even when we are in talks with any company for any of Rahman's tracks, we will keep them in the loop. Things are fine now."

The Kat-Rahman connection
Katrina Kaif and Rahman have worked on a nursery rhyme album aimed at raising funds for her mother's NGO that looks after orphans.

The last time this happened....
Music composer Ram Sampat, known for his jingles in the ad world, won a landmark verdict in the Bombay High Court that declared that Rakesh Roshan and team had lifted a track for their film Krazzy 4 that clearly belonged to him. Ram had enforced copyright charges against the Roshans and he apparently got Rs 2 crores.

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