Leo: Anirudh Ravichander in hot water for allegedly plagiarising Otnicka's Where Are You song

Anirudh Ravichander, Thalapathy Vijay in Leo

Thalapathy Vijay's recently released thriller, Leo, has been making enough noise globally. With a thunderous response at the box office, the Lokesh Kanagraj directorial has set new records. However, amid its success, the music composer of the film, Anirudh Ravichander, has been accused of plagiarism.

The makers of Leo released the song, titled Ordinary Person, on YouTube. Soon, netizens noticed similarities between the track and Otnicka's Where Are You? While the team of Leo is yet to react to the matter, Peaky Blinders composer Otnicka addressed the issue and shared a note on Instagram. He wrote, "Guys, thanks for your messages about the movie "Leo". I can see everything, but it's physically impossible to answer everyone. The mail is overflowing with messages, Instagram, as well as thousands of comments on YouTube under the video "Where Are You". The situation is very unclear… We are looking into this and a little later I will give an assessment of everything that is happening. But I'm not accusing anyone yet. Important! One of the authors of "Otnicka - Where Are You" is also a music composer Artem Mikhaenkin. Thank you (sic)."

In the comments section, Otnicka added, "Please! If we are talking about the similarity with "Where Are You", then let's not forget that one of the authors of "Where Are You" is the composer Artem Mikhaenkin."

Netizens criticised Anirudh for allegedly plagiarising Otnicka's Where Are You? One user asked on X, "How many of you felt the song ‘Ordinary Person' done by @anirudhofficial from the Tamil movie Leo is a master class copy of #Otnicka, a Belarusian artists song ‘Where are you'. Anirudh is a master class copycat." Another person said, "@anirudhofficial get ready for a copyright infringement strike from Otnicka music.. you've just copied #Otnicka where are you track and pasted in #Leo #OrdinaryPerson .. you're a good composer, why steal like this?"

The cast of Leo includes Thalapathy Vijay, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Madonna Sebastian, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Mysskin, Mansoor Ali Khan, George Maryan, Priya Anand and Mathew Thomas. The film is produced by S.S. Lalit Kumar and Jagadish Palanisamy for Seven Screen Studio.