S. P. Charan sends legal notice to makers of Telugu film Keedaa Cola for recreating late SPB’s voice through A.I.

Son of late singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam issues legal notice for unauthorized use of his father's voice through AI.

Singer S. P. Kalyan Charan, son of late legendary singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, who passed away due to Covid-19 related complications in 2020, on Friday, February 16, 2024, said that he had issued a legal notice to producers of the Telugu film Keedaa Colaand the film’s music director Vivek Sagar, for “inappropriately” recreating Mr. Balasubrahmanyam’s voice through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deepfake technology. 

In a press release, Mr. Charan said: “While we really love how technology is used to its fullest potential to give his voice a posthumous life, the family is disheartened when the same technology is utilised without our knowledge, consent, or authorisation for commercial exploitation”.  

This fact, he said, was admitted by the music director himself in his interview to a YouTube channel and Spotify page ‘Permit Room’ published on November 28, 2023. “This shocked us for two reasons, firstly because no consent or permission was taken from us to use/artificially mimic the legend’s voice for commercial exploitation, secondly: if this trend of using AI technology for commercial exploitation in entertainment industry continues without valid consent or permission then even the present and future singers who are valuable resource to the music industry and whose  livelihood depends on their only asset, their voice, will be at peril.”

On this note, he said a legal notice was issued on January 18, 2024, to the concerned parties for unethical and unlawful usage of the late S.P.Balasubrahmanyam’s voice, seeking an apology, damages, and a share in royalties. The legal notice also called them for a one-on-one meeting to arrive at an amicable solution. 

However, Mr. Charan said that he was “totally appalled at the tenor of the response” dated February 8, 2024, which not only dismissed the already-admitted fact of using SPB’s voice through AI technology, but also deceitfully suggested a media trial as opposed to a legal approach.

“We abstain from any devious methods to handle this matter and have nil desire to precipitate this issue through media trial and solely propose to take this issue up legally. My father’s voice is not only his asset, but also has a tremendous recall value, which is the reason, I believe, why the movie-makers wanted to use it – even if artificially recreated. Aside from this, we would like to register that we have huge respect and love for all our legendary singers, musicians and composers, both present and past, and we stand in solidarity in protecting the community from such unauthorised misuse/abuse of their late lamented skills,” he said.

Mr. Charan also quoted Oscar-winning music composer, A. R. Rahman, on how Artificial Intelligence should be used legitimately and with the consent of the families of the singers whose voice is being recreated through this technology. It may be remembered that Mr. Rahman experimented with bringing back the voices of two deceased singers, Bamba Bakya and Shahul Hameed, with AI assistance, for a track in the new Rajnikanth movie Lal Salaam, but with the permission of the families and with due credit to the singers.