Give ‘some acknowledgement’ to Dhrupad singer, Supreme Court asks A.R. Rahman

The Supreme Court asked music composer A.R. Rahman and the producers of Tamil film Ponniyin Selvan II on Friday to consider giving “some sort of an acknowledgement” to Dhrupad singer and Padma Shri awardee Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar for the musical composition “Shiva Stuti” used in the song “Veera Raja Veera” featured in the Tamil film.

The song composition is based on “Shiva Stuti”, originally sung by the Dagar brothers, Late Ustad N. Faiyazuddin Dagar and Late Ustad Zahiruddin Dagar, the father and uncle, respectively, of Mr. Wasifuddin Dagar.

Mr. Dagar has argued that the film credits and acknowledges that the song was based on “Dagarvani Tradition Dhrupad” – a broad stylistic approach to Hindustani Classical music – but it did not give any credit to him.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a plea by Mr. Wasifuddin Dagar against the September 2025 Delhi High Court order, which had held there was no prima facie evidence of the Junior Dagar Brothers being the authors of a classical rendition of “Shiv Stuti”.

“The first performance does not necessarily mean authorship. Your case is more of an inference from the first performance that it is authorship. The issue is whether you were the creator or got it from the Dagar tradition and sang it for the first time,” Justice Bagchi addressed Mr. Dagar’s counsel.

The counsel responded that his client had the rights to the composition. “My father and his brother had created it,” the counsel submitted.

The court then underlined that the Dagarwani tradition’s contribution needed to be acknowledged.

“The originality of the tune is undisputed. If these gharanas had not contributed to the shastriya sangeet (classical music), do you think these modern singers would have managed,” the Bench addressed Mr. Rahman’s counsel, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi.

Mr. Singhvi said that no objection had been raised during previous renditions. “But during our rendition, he (Dagar) objected,” the senior advocate said.

“See, there should be some acknowledgement. They are traditional worshippers of classical music. He is not in the competitive domain. They want respect and recognition,” the apex court addressed Mr. Singhvi, scheduling the case for hearing on February 20.