Akshay beats SRK in owning 'Kolaveri Di's rights

Akshay not remaking Kolaveri Di

Contrary to buzz, the star has acquired the rights of a popular Telugu song, and not the Tanglish chartbuster

Soumyadipta Banerjee

Grapevine had it that actor Akshay Kumar had acquired the rights of the Tamil chartbuster Why This Kolaveri Di from South actor Rajinikanth's son-in-law, actor-singer Dhanush, thus apparently beating actor Shah Rukh Khan to it. But a source close to Akshay has denied that he has bought the Hindi remake rights of the song.
"The song is not being remade in Hindi. The song has been heard in its original version by everybody across the globe, and therefore is not an economically viable option as a Hindi remake. Nobody will listen to it," says a friend of Akshay.
According to the friend, Akshay and his partner has bought the rights of another South song — the song is in Telugu. "He wants to use that Telugu song in his movie with Hindi lyrics, and has acquired the rights for it. I must also add there was no one else in contention for the song," informs the friend.
According to sources, the rights of Kolaveri Di still rest with the producers, and if there are any plans to make it in Hindi, it'll be done by them. "The song is done and there are so many unofficial remixed versions already available on the net. Moreover, nobody wants to sell the rights of the song because the song is already earning money (from downloads etc). However, business deals cannot be predicted and the status might change anytime in the future," adds the source.
Sources also said that there has been an unanimous decision to use the song in the film Moondru (3), and no where else. The film is due to be released in 2012. Written and sung by Dhanush, the song was composed by debutant music director Anirudh Ravichander, and will be part of the film's official music release on December 23rd.

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