New Delhi: Music composer and singer Anirudh Ravichander had two major releases recently – Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan and Thalapathy Vijay’s ‘Leo’. The music and background score of both films has been well appreciated, giving the music composer two back-to-back successes. But it seems his dream run has undergone a major setback with plagiarism allegations.
On October 23, Anirudh and the makers of 'Leo' dropped the 'Ordinary Person' song on YouTube. Soon after the song was dropped, netizens found it very similar to Belarusian musician Otnicka’s track ‘Where Are You?’ Many users commented the same on YouTube. A comment read, "Raise a copyright claim for that Indian movie for that unauthorized usage of where are you?" Another wrote, "Please take legal action against him.”
Soon, Otnicka too noticed the comments and took to Instagram to address the issue. He wrote, “Guys, thanks for hundreds of your messages about the movie ‘Leo’. I can see everything, but it’s physically impossible to answer everyone. The mail is overflowing with messages, Instagram, as well as thousands of comments on YouTube under the video “Where Are You”. The situation is very unclear… We are looking into this and a little later I will give an assessment of everything that is happening (sic). But I'm not accusing anyone yet. Important! One of the authors of "Otnicka - Where Are You" is also a music composer Artem Mikhaenkin - @mihaenkin Thank you.”
The Peaky Blinders composer also replied to a comment by a user and said that no one contacted him for using the song. He wrote, "The label does not own the copyright and cannot grant a license without the artist's knowledge. No one contacted me and the team (sic)."
Anirudh Ravichander is yet to give any statement about the issue.