Two Devaswom boards in Kerala have finally intervened in the copyright controversy of Thrissur Pooram percussion ensemble. Due to the copyright, people were not able to upload videos of the festival on social media platforms and YouTube.
Thrissur Pooram enthusiasts across the world had criticised Sony Music for owning the copyright of a public event. Along with Sony Music, Academy Awards-winner Resul Pookutty was also under fire as Sony Music had acquired the copyright for his movie The Sound Story.
Now, Paramekkavu Devaswom and Thiruvambady Devaswom boards have intervened in the matter. The representatives of both the Devaswom boards said that they will choose the best course of action if is established that any private firm has complete control over Ilanjithara melam, a large open-air concert, in the name of copyrights, reports Manorama.
Some of the major events of the temple festival are 'Ilanjithara Melam', 'Panchari Melam' and 'Panchavadyam'. These are the assembly of percussion performance held by eminent artists during the Thrissur Pooram at Vadakkunnathan Temple. The melam performances have been copyrighted by Sony Music for the movie and any similar content cannot be uploaded by the public owing to copyright infringement.
However, Resul Pookutty took the matter to social media. In a Facebook post, he said, "Resul Pookutty sold the copyright of Pooram" is completely baseless, malicious and false! Because there were much live streaming and FB live that happened still available about this year's Pooram."
"As far as I know, Sony Pictures has been given the distribution rights of the film Sound Story film only and nothing else...! So the fake call of Resul Pookutty sold Pooram is clearly either plain ignorance or based on some agenda," he added.
The film's director, Prasad Prabhakar, has also spoken about the controversy. He questioned how the Pooram's TV broadcast was uploaded on YouTube if the copyright allegation stands true.
"Be it live streaming or not, any video could be affected if the said issue persists. Content is unchanged, right? First of all, the film plays just 5.42 minutes of the actual Thrissur Pooram. The rest was staged and recorded at our expense in Peruvanam temple. I handed over the intellectual property right to Sony Music," said Prasad, reports News18.
He said that the whole percussion jamboree which is almost 2.30 hours long was reduced into a 5.42 minutes track. The copyright is given for that track and Sony Music has rights only over it. He said that the claim of the movie cast making money out of the festival is baseless.
