The popular number, ‘ Excuse me, Mr. Kandasamy’ in Tamil flick Kandasamy, which had actors Vikram and Shriya Saran, among others, and released in 2009, has partially emerged out of the seven-year legal battle, as its director, producer, and music director have recently won a criminal case in the Madras High Court against an advocate, who claimed to have penned a few lines of the song.
The song had run into a controversy soon after its release when an advocate V. Elango claimed that he had written five lines of the song and alleged that director Susi Ganesan, producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu and music director Devi Sri Prasad of the film used the song as if it was composed by someone else and released the film.
While he lodged a private complaint before VII Metropolitan Magistrate at George Town here for an offence under various sections of the Copyright Act, 1957 and the Indian Penal Code, the film director, producer and music director moved the High Court against it.
Allowing their plea, Justice P.N. Prakash said it was not the case of the complainant that he had composed the song in its entirety, but only five lines. “This (lines penned by the advocate) is only pallavi and not saranam . The whole song will have saranam , which will be the crux of the lyrics, the pallavi being the frills. Viewed from that perspective, in the considered opinion of this court, the present prosecution launched by the complainant (advocate) is surely an abuse of process of law.”
The judge quashed the prosecution pending on the file of the VII Metropolitan Magistrate Court against the director, producer, and the music director of the film.
However, a civil suit filed by the advocate in the High Court against the director, producer and the music director for a declaration that he alone was entitled to exploit all the rights in respect of the lyrics is still pending.
Incidentally, a single judge had in 2009 said that there was prima facie material to show that the complainant had composed the pallavi portion and a Division Bench directed the producer to show the name of the advocate V. Elango as lyricist in the rolling titles in respect of the pallavi under dispute in the bracket of the song starting ‘ Excuse me Mr. Kandasamy’ . There has not been a final adjudication in this regard.
