A public confrontation between the previous members of widespread folk-fusion band, Indian Ocean, escalated right into a authorized battle over royalty funds in August.
On August 16, Susmit Sen, the band’s former lead guitarist, and Sunita Chakravarty, the spouse of the deceased Asheem Chakravarty, filed a legal criticism in Delhi in opposition to the band’s vocalist Rahul Ram and percussionist Amit Kilam. The fees filed by the previous two embrace legal conspiracy, legal breach of belief and dishonest amongst others. This follows a case filed by Sen and Sunita in March 2023 with the Nationwide Firm Regulation Tribunal (NCLT).
In a assertion on August 28, Ram and Kilam promised full cooperation with the police in any investigation and mentioned, “submitting of a legal criticism on what’s evidently a civil regulation subject appears to be an afterthought and to arm-twist us to comply with their unlawful and unwarranted calls for.”
The NCLT has taken cognisance of the matter and can hear it on October 15.
Why is Indian Ocean, one of many nation’s most well-known bands, engaged in a battle for royalty funds?
Concerning the band
Indian Ocean was based in 1990 by Sen and Asheem Chakravarty, with Ram becoming a member of in 1991 and Kilam in 1994.
This line-up would show to be essentially the most recognisable within the band’s historical past. Loads of the songs comprised socio-political lyrics wrapped in different musical types leading to wildly widespread albums together with Indian Ocean (1993), Desert Rain (1997) and Kandisa (2000) — all of them a big a part of the band’s discography. The ‘Indian Ocean’ album alone bought 40,000 copies in its first 12 months, a feat then unknown to any Indian band.
The band additionally scored music for the movies Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday (2005) and Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Dwell (2010).
Percussionist Asheem Chakravarty handed away in 2009 whereas on tour in Qatar, forsaking his spouse and a 13-year-old son. 4 years later, in 2013, Sen left the band citing inventive variations, as he was “not having fun with himself with the music anymore.” He has since launched into his solo profession, releasing the album ‘Depths of the Ocean’ in 2009 whereas nonetheless with Indian Ocean, and performing along with his band, the Susmit Sen Chronicles within the years since.
The band at the moment options vocalist Himanshu Joshi who joined in 2010, percussionist Tuheen Chakravarty and guitarist Nikhil Rao in 2013, along with Ram and Kilam.
So what’s the current disagreement about?
The current dispute surrounds the royalties and dues entitled to every of the unique 4.
Royalties in music are remunerative funds owed to the rights holders, resembling singers, songwriters, producers and the music label, and have to be paid each occasion a music is performed or carried out.
Upon Chakravarty’s demise in 2009, the surviving members informally agreed to present a proportion of the earnings from their gigs to help his household for the following few years to honour his invaluable contribution to their best hits. A proper contract was not drawn up for the funds, nevertheless it was understood that these would proceed till Chakravarty’s son reached employable age. Sen has claimed that this proportion was 7 per cent for the household.
Equally, when Sen left the band, he mentioned there was an oral settlement that he would get 7.5 per cent as royalty/dues of the quantity that the band makes. This, based on him, would come with cash from the gigs, any movies that the brand new band composed for and any albums that the band would create sooner or later.
Sen and Sunita Chakravarty first filed a case in opposition to the band with the Nationwide Firm Regulation Tribunal (NCLT) in March 2023. He claims that the funds haven’t are available in since 2020 for him, whereas Sunita hasn’t been paid since 2021. The present band, based on Sen, didn’t pay citing Covid and lack of gigs. However the two declare they weren’t paid submit Covid as effectively.
In line with Sen, the present members are incomes out of the goodwill and fame of the band he co-founded in 1990 with Asheem, and “toiled for years to make it stand on its ft”. He additionally mentioned that Ram and Kilam weren’t round throughout preliminary days of wrestle… “and had been actually served the platform on a platter” by him.
Sen and Sunita escalated the problem this August, citing the non-response of the band to the NCLT case. Ram and Kilam have since maintained that the matter is sub judice, and they’re “shocked by a police criticism filed with what seems to be the identical subject being thought of by NCLT”.
The police criticism additionally names Kandisa Music, the corporate fashioned by the 4 ex-bandmates, during which they’re all shareholders. Sen remained the director of the corporate until 2018.
Why is that this royalty battle so contentious?
The present authorized battle raises questions concerning the extent of royalties owed to the previous members of the band.
* Sen and Asheem’s legacy to the band is extraordinarily vital and a court docket might want to determine on the precise quantity/proportion that must be paid to the 2. Figuring out the extent of contribution made by the 2 is a tough matter: the band stopped assigning particular person credit on its music after the primary two albums.
* A call can even have to be taken about Sen and Sunita incomes by the newer work that the band has made with out the presence of Sen, together with the movie and theatre initiatives and songs that got here with out Sen.
* Since official contracts had been by no means drawn between the 2 events, the matter might stay in court docket for years.
* Conversely, there’s the query of royalties owed by Sen who performs Indian Ocean songs along with his band, Susmit Sen Chronicles, if Ram and Kilam are to pay him the royalties for the Indian Ocean band songs that they carry out.