Prithviraj Sukumaran is a Malayalam actor and producer. Prithviraj Productions Private Limited is the distributor of the film “Kantara” in Kerala. The Kerala High Court has stayed the FIR against Prithviraj Sukumaran in connection with the alleged copyright infringement of the song ‘Varaharoopam’ from the Kannada movie “Kantara”.
A petition was filed by the actor for quashing an FIR registered against him at the Kozhikode Town Police Station alleging that the song ‘Varaharoopam’ from the movie “Kantara” has been plagiarised from the song “Navarasam” by the band Thaikkudam Bridge. A single bench of Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas was hearing a petition.
While staying the FIR, Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas observed, “As a mere distributor of the film in Kerala, the actor was unnecessarily being dragged into and that initiating copyright infringement proceedings against him was stretching it too far. Prima facie, I am satisfied that the petitioner as a distributor of a movie cannot be mulcted with infringement of copyright merely for distributing a movie in one of the states in the country. As a director of the Company Prithviraj Productions Private Limited, merely facilitated the distribution of the film in Kerala and was not involved in the production of the film or in the making of its music in any capacity. The company stopped the distribution of the film on 04.11.2022. The role of his company as a distributor of the film is limited to acting as an intermediary that distributes the films through theatres after obtaining distribution rights from the producer.”
The court granted a stay on the proceedings against the actor for a period of seven days. The Petitioner is represented by Advocates Vijay V Paul, Thomas J Anakkallunkal, Chelson Chembarathy, Gokul Krishnan, Jayaraman S , and Anupa Anna Jose Kandoth.
