Kantara song row: Thaikkudam Bridge frontman speaks up

Kannada film Kantara recently courted controversy as Kerala-based band Thaikkudam Bridge accused the makers of plagiarising their song Navarasam for the film’s track, Varaha Roopam. And while Kozhikode District Sessions court put an interim injunction on playing the song on any platform without the band’s permission, Vian Fernandes, bassist and vocalist of the band, feels it is what the makers do next, that really matters.

“What’s important now is the next step the Kantara team takes after they receive the order from the court. The band’s point of view is to get the due credits, following which the track can be played,” shares Fernandes.

Talking about why it is so necessary to speak out about this for the band, he explains, “This is the first time that an independent band is fighting a big production house. With the reach, power and money they have, they think they can get away with it. For us, it was about setting an example to the entire indie music scene. No matter what the decision is going to be, we will have the satisfaction that we did not sit around, but, took a step.”

He shares that it was first the listeners who noticed the similarities in the two songs: “Initially, we were okay with it as some songs do have similarities at times. However, the comments, messages and calls didn’t stop. In fact, thousands of comments were deleted on Varaha Roopam’s video. We still gave it time, listened to it a number of times and made sure of the similarities.”

But the legal route wasn’t the first option for the band, as the 35-year-old adds, “The music director, B Ajaneesh Loknath, reached out to Govind Vasantha, one of the founding members of the band. Our management team had also given a warning to the Kantara team, and one of the videos was taken down. But, another video was still active on the music director’s channel and they had disabled comments. If they had even talked to us before the release and given the band a mention, we would have been okay with it. ”