Bollywood is plagued with cases involving copyright issues, with filmmakers going to great lengths to protect their ideas. Now, choreographer-director Remo D’Souza has taken this protection to, quite literally, the next step by bringing the dance steps from his next film under the same regulations. He has decided to copyright certain moves from the song ‘Bezubaan’ from his forthcoming directorial venture ABCD — Any Body Can Dance, to prevent infringement.

“Like a film, dance steps or sequences are creative works. If a script can have a copyright, and so can songs, why can’t dance sequences as well? I want to take this forward and copyright the sequence that I have conceived and used for the song ‘Bezubaan’. It’s the first number that we are rolling out,” says Remo.

The song featuring reality show Dance India Dance’s winners (who also play lead characters in the film) and Lauren Gottlieb from the American reality show So You Think You Can Dance, features all the characters grooving in the rain. Remo says, “I don’t want this to be copied and used in a manner that doesn’t fit its extravagance, as it is shown in the movie.”

Since, the awards season has just begun, is Remo looking to charge royalties if organisers wish to add these steps to their stage performances? “Of course, if I have the copyright no will be able to perform the same steps on any platform. If they wish to, they can pay me royalty,” says Remo, who is making the copyright effective early next week, before he releases the song.