It feels awesome that people love your music. It’s even more awesome to have someone copy your music. But wait, what do you do when that happens?

“Could you please listen to this, sir?”

“They just ripped out the same melody you did. You have to hear it.”

My assistants texted me. 

I heard it, and I ignored it just like all previous hearings. But then my assistants told me the name of the composer who copied it this time. And now, I had to do something.

Where this started

First, let’s understand where this started.

Over the last few years, I have noticed a pattern of my musical works being ripped out. 

After Amen, we heard many clarinet-themed songs. There were a lot of minimalist musical backing songs similar to Solomonum Shoshannayum.

Following Mosayile Kuthira Meenukkal, there was a lot of floaty, infinite reverb treatment for vocals.

After the Angamaly Diaries soundtrack, we heard many songs with street bands and raw folk singing. 

Angamaly Diaries also inspired many composers and directors to have shorter songs. I’m aware that Do Naina set the benchmark for this approach. 

It didn’t stop at the songs. Even the score from Angamaly Diaries shone like a North Star. Many aspired to recreate that raw, rusty, and earthy score. 

Everyone wanted Jallikattu

The most prolific score to be “copied” was the score of Jallikattu. Everyone wanted that sound.

It is almost impossible to find a film that is dark and thriller-like without referencing the Jallikattu score.

In one of the films I completed, the filmmaker wanted a Jallikattu score, but with 0.00025% intensity. 

Then there was the time when a Tamil filmmaker approached me about scoring a film. They sent me the rough cut of the trailer, which had a Jallikattu score smothered over it. “Sir, we want exactly the Jallikattu score for this film.” I declined. I never did that film. And when it came out recently on Netflix, the trailer preview closely resembled the Jallikattu score. 

How not to be a composer

Even though I’m not a big movie buff anymore, as a father, a son, or a husband, I have to take my loved ones to the movies from time to time. Some of the films I’ve watched over the past two years have soundtracks and songs inspired by my recent works. 

So a few months back, I was forced to hear the scale at which some composers plagiarized my work. I just let it pass. I asked my assistant to chill out. But when he told me the composer’s name, I was like, “Now that’s something!”. 

I laughed out loud. Not with that vengeful evil laughter. But genuine laughter, like Russell Peters pulling you up during his crowd work, asks your name and then jokes about how hilarious your name sounds. It seemed funny that people of certain stature and pride would plagiarize to be relevant and trendy. 

Citing this individual, I mentored my assistants on “how not to be a composer”. 

What action did I take

What action did you take then, PP?  

All I did was forgive this composer and move on. 

That’s how I’ve dealt with most situations in my music career. 

Earlier, it was just moving on. In the last few years, I added the ritual of forgiveness and moved on. 

I don’t get attached to my work. Once the work is done, it’s out there.  

It’s out there for everyone to love, accept, dislike, judge, and make it a cult. 

I do not control any of it.  

And I don’t want any part of all that drama and the emotions that come with it. 

Working with geniuses

Yes, I am grateful to have done phenomenal work with some gifted minds.

I’ve worked with some genius filmmakers and sound wizards who have a vision and a mission that transcends beyond themselves. It’s a constant challenge to work with them. 

I like that. 

For me, I love not the result of the work but what that work makes me. I love how every work shapes me into a better and evolved creative and human.

You have to start somewhere

When you start, you have to start somewhere. I’ve been there. 

You have to look up to someone. For me, it was A.R. Rahman, Ennio Morricone, Nitin Sawhney, and Ray Charles, to name a few. 

It is also understood that you get heavily influenced or are forced to copy to make things work. 

That is how it works for everyone when they first start out.

This is true for feature film songs and scores.

To fit the agenda of the producer, director, and all other non-musical decision makers, you unconsciously copy or clone and create something similar. 

That’s how you get these copycat sounds for yourself. However, it’s not the way you want to be known. Eventually, you want to establish yourself as a unique artist. 

You have to get better

Once realization strikes you, you know you could have done better. You could have done something different. 

This is the moment when you begin creating your sound. From this point on you will dissect over 100 pieces of work from various sources to blend and create your own sound. A sound and a voice that is uniquely yours. 

However, this approach does not permit you to plagiarize. Plagiarizing is photocopying someone else’s work and claiming it as yours. There is a simple solution for losers with no skills or creativity. And once that label sticks to you, it’s nearly impossible to wash it off.

I was advised to stop listening to Rahman

I was fortunate enough to discover my own sound early in my career. Long before I ventured into music composition, I met music composer Ramesh Vinayagam as a fanboy. 

While sipping a hot cup of filter coffee at his modest home somewhere in Chennai, Ramesh was explaining the wonders of music and his story. He advised me in good spirits to “…stop listening only to Rahman. You should listen to other music too. Do you know there are so many songs and music pieces being created around the world right now? Go find them and listen to them.” 

What I heard was to get inspired from the world waiting to be discovered. Neither he nor I realized the profound impact of what he shared.  Since then, my life has never been the same. 

My quest to discover artists began with a broadband internet connection and countless music store visits. This was before Spotify, Saavn, and YouTube music existed. It was quite a challenge to learn and understand 

Ramesh’s pep talk opened up a whole new world of learning for me. I learned and scaled my understanding of sounds faster. 

My curiosity led me down a rabbit hole, and eventually, I ended up with over 1000 different tracks that helped shape me as a musician. Now it was not just Rahman that influenced me, but so many global artists from around the world. 

We learn by copying

Like Austin Kleon says in his book, Steal Like An Artist, “Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.”  

There is no harm in copying in private. But when it comes to how you want to be known you have to think differently. Stop copying from one and steal ideas from many. Reading Austin’s book will educate you about the concept of originality, copying, stealing, and much more.

Today, I am only happy to find that my works are an inspiration for many.

It is the choice of these music composers of what they do with that inspiration. They can choose the path that best fits their agenda and ethics. This decision will make or break their career and legacy. 

You can’t steal my crown.

However this ends, all I have to say is,

You can copy my work, but you can’t steal my crown.