Kantara plagiarism: Varaha Roopam lifted from Navarasam, say Thaikkudam Bridge

Varaha Roopam from Kantara (2022) is uncannily similar to Thaikkudam Bridge's Navarasam (2015).

Ever since the music for Varaha roopam daiva dropped, music fans have been elated, mesmerised and angry in equal measure. The song is from one of the highest-grossing Kannada films this year, the Rishab Shetty-directed Kantara (forest). Released earlier this month, the  ecological thriller has gripped the audience's imagination and is now in the grips of a controversy.

The similarities between Varaha roopam, sung by the film's music director B Ajaneesh Loknath and Sai Vignesh, and Kerala-based multi-genre music band Thaikkudam Bridge's Navarasam, sung by Vipin Lal, the title track of their eponymous debut album released five years ago, is beyond uncanny.

The band has not been credited in the film's album. While some some say Varaha roopam is a better interpretation of Navarasam, others call it a pure rip-off. The band has called out to their fans to share the word and to fellow musicians to raise their voice about protecting music copyright — an urgent issue which has been plaguing independent musicians for long.

On Diwali day, October 24, the band put out a message on their social media handles indicating that they will be taking legal recourse to pursue the matter. They wrote in the message that the band is "in no way or form affiliated with Kantara."

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Further writing, "The unavoidable similarities between our IP (intellectual property) Navarasam and Varaha Roopam in terms of audio is therefore a blatant infringement of copyright laws. From our standpoint, the line between 'inspired' and 'plagiarised' is distinct and indisputable and, therefore, we will be seeking legal action against the creative team responsible for this. There has been no acknowledgement of our rights over the content and the song is propagated as an 'original' piece of work by the movie's creative team."

The film's many sounds are the loci of its narrative, used as a plot device, to further the story or signal the occurrence of an event (divine spirit entering the human form/Shetty's Shiva, for instance). The film’s plot revolves around the folk ritual dance, bhoota kola, an animist form of spirit worship practised in the coastal districts of Tulu Nadu.

In one of his interviews, music director Loknath said, for the film, he has "produced sounds with a native touch", the vibrant sounds trying to capture the essence of coastal Karnataka.

The compositions draw from myriad styles and genres, from Carnatic classical, paddanagalu (folk songs), jok-kay (low tone) throat singing (like that of the Tibetan monks) in the background, to rock music. And diverse instruments, from those played in the daiva (demigod/divine spirit) dance tradition, dolu and tase, to international wind instruments didgeridoo and kazoo. Now, if the music director was aiming for authenticity, why introduce such sounds which are alien to the land?

About the talks on social media with regard to the eerie similarity of the songs Varaha roopam and Navarasam, music director Loknath said in an interview, he was only "inspired from the Kerala-based band’s (Thaikkudam Bridge's) music style" and asserted "the songs and score of 'Kantara' are original".

In 2013, the 15-member Thaikkudam Bridge began as a one-time gig of friends and were prominently noticed, a year later, on Malayalam music channel Kappa TV on the show Music Mojo. They have sung covers (Metallica's Nothing Else Matters; Tum hi ho from Aashiqui 2, 2013, and Khwaja mere khwaja from Jodhaa Akbar, 2008) as well as their own original creations (the death metal Fish Rock; Navarasam).

As for the song in contention, hear it for yourself:

The inspiration

The inspired

Many listeners have also speculated, on social media, about lifts from other songs that reflect in, at least, two other compositions in the Kantara album. Resemblances of the Marathi song Apsara ali can be found in Singara siriye, the romantic number of the two leads in the film, and the Shiva's gang's Rebel song tune inspired from Mundoor madan theme song from Malayalam film Ayyapanum Koshiyum (2020).

Shetty is, perhaps, among the only mainstream actors/directors/producers in the Kannada film industry to throw their weight behind fledgling projects/independent cinema and push young talent on the global stage. One such is Natesh Hegde's Pedro, which had its world premiere at the New Currents segment of the Busan International Film Festival last year and will be shown at the Dharamshala International Film Festival, November 3-6. It is because the bankable Shetty himself didn't come from the filmmaking background and has risen through the ranks in the industry, giving gripping performances, such as Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana (2021) in recent times. So, whichever way the wind blows, for someone who champions originality in his craft — acting, direction and production — Kantara actor-director Shetty should have run a quality check before going on the floor.

One will have to wait and see how this case unfolds once Thaikkudam Bridge takes the legal route.