Kantara controversy: Did Ajaneesh Loknath lift Thaikkudam Bridge’s Navarasam for Varaha Roopam?

In the time since actor-filmmaker Rishab Shetty’s latest, Kantara, came out, pretty much everyone has been praising the film sky-high. Also receiving a lot of applause are composer B Ajaneesh Loknath and cinematographer Aravind Kashyap. For one of them, though, all the love is slowly changing, as allegations of plagiarism have hit Ajaneesh.

Music loving netizens have pointed out that one of the songs from the film which has been receiving the most love, Varaha Roopam is a direct rip lift of Navarasam by the band Thaikkudam Bridge. “So no one is going to call out Ajaneesh Lokanath for copying Thaikkudam Bridge? Or did he give them some inspiration credits?” wrote Sukrutha, while another user, Karthik added, “Varaha Roopam track from #Kantara seems to be copy/rendition of Navarasam by Thaikkudam Bridge band !! A third, Sankaran, wrote, “Kantara song "Varaha Roopam" is very similar to Thaikkudam's Navarasam. Also I definitely did hear samples of Westworld theme in the movie..”Dheeraj Prasanna wrote, “Navarasam and Thaikkuddam bridge was the first things to come to my mind when heard the Varaha roopam for the first time.” Param Arunachalam added, “Varaha Roopam from the Kannada film Kantara is a pretty good interpretation of Thaikkudam Bridge’s Navarasam - - one of the best music videos to come out in recent years.”

Yet another netizen went to the extent of saying that pretty much all of the music of Kantara is a rip off. “Salute to Rishab on acting though. But pretty much all of the music is being ripped off. Singara Siriye :: Apsara Ali (Marathi song); Rebel Song music :: Ayapanam Koshiyam theme music; Varaha Roopam :: Navarasam Thaikuddam bridge,” he wrote.

One user, who goes by the handle NoMad justified the ‘inspiration’ writing, “I found them slightly similar but that's the case with all the classical/ devotional songs mixed with rock. Then there's inspiration! Varaha roopam might have taken a tiny bit of inspiration from this song but that doesn't amount to plagiarism for sure!”