Preity Zinta has been hard at work selling tickets for the matches, King Khan has lowered the ticket prices for the matches his Kolkata Knight Riders will be playing, while brand ambassador Akshay Kumar will take time off from shoots to support the Delhi team. Hrithik Roshan, after his sizzling promotional number in dad’s Krazzy 4 will once again put his best dancing foot forward during the IPL to cheer the Mumbai lads headed by Sachin Tendulkar. The competitive spirit is running high.

At a recent lunch, Neeta Ambani put a few things in perspective when she said, “When you have Sachin Tendulkar and Hrithik Roshan on board, you don’t need anybody else.” I am not sure if everybody shares her sentiments but we’ll find out over the next fortnight whether Ambani’s assessment of others stands corrected.

Speaking of Roshan's footwork in Krazzy 4, the controversy surrounding ‘the Thump’ used in its song has drawn mixed reactions from B- town. There is one section that is of the opinion that producers must own all rights for content as they are the ones who back artistes and put money on them. It’s only fair, according to them, that they be sole beneficiaries of profits accrued from content at large. To have individual artistes demand profits on transactions beyond the movie is a dangerous thing.

The other side comprising of musicians, scriptwriters and lyricists among others, holds a contrary view. The debate I suspect will go on but there are a few important lessons in the acrimonious exchange that took place between Ram Sampath and the Roshans.

For one, it is time for movie moghuls to brace themselves for a few major changes in Bollywood’s work ethos. The wads of cold cash that corporates have brought in is just one part, the other being greater professionalism and transparency in all transactions. For starters, as South superstar Kamal Haasan mentioned in an earlier interview, it enforces a certain discipline hitherto unknown in showbiz. The message is simple enough – if you are being paid big bucks, you had jolly well deliver. It also means that all agreements and negotiations will be put down in black-and-white – verbal agreements and promises are on their way out and for good. Good news is that all these developments will make plagiarism more difficult, as also robbing a creative stakeholder of what could rightfully be his share of the profit pie.

The mighty, while their reign will continue as before, will have to tread carefully to ensure that they are not stepping on too many toes.It means that a good idea could well change your life provided you are smart enough to claim and assert ownership. Loosely translated, it is important that individuals do their research on intellectual property rights and sell creative ideas to companies on their terms.

In an industry beleaguered by countless charges of cheating and swindling by the powers that be, music director Ram Sampath has emerged an unlikely hero. It could be that he planned, plotted and presented his case in a way that the producers with an impending release had no option but to pay up (instead of deleting the music from the movie) but then as the saying goes – “Timing is everything.”

Sampath’s victory has shown the way to creative foot-soldiers who figure really low in Bollywood’s food chain to assert themselves and fight for their rights when needs be. It is also a reminder to the world at large that might (even if it concerns an international brand) is not always right.