Song and dance over Bollywood film lyrics A Bollywood film about Maoist rebels opens across India this week despite last-minute attempts by big industrial corporations such as the Tata group to eliminate a song-and-dance routine criticising corporate greed. The Indian Supreme Court on Friday rejected a defamation case and allowed the release of Chakravyuh - or an inescapable military ambush - provided one of the songs runs with an on-screen disclaimer that says references to individual companies are purely illustrative. The ruling came in response to a suit filed by Swiss-Czech shoe company Bata's Indian operations, which film critics suggest may have been included in the song about price rises because Bata rhymes with Tata. Last week, the Delhi High Court heard a separate case brought by Tata itself, which said it was "aggrieved by the defamation" and was awaiting a further court hearing on November 8. Apart from generating publicity for the film, directed by Prakash Jha, the controversy has highlighted the huge gap between rich and poor in India as the economy has grown and modernised. Over the past two years, scandals over deals between politicians and big business have erupted in mining, telecoms and other sectors, sparking public demonstrations and the formation of anti-corruption parties. At the same time, Maoist militants, which prime minister Manmohan Singh has said are the country's greatest internal security threat, remain in control of at least 6,000 sq km of mostly rural and forested areas in central and eastern India. The film features Maoist supporters singing as they enter a village. The chorus of the song goes: "Be it Birla or Tata, Ambani or Bata, Everyone has exploited the nation for their own benefit, Their engine runs on our blood" Mr Jha, a director who has often dealt with political and social themes and is sometimes as critical of the Maoists as he is of big business, told the Financial Times he thought the way the aggrieved companies had taken legal action was "quite unnecessary." He said: "It's out there in the public domain what people think about these industrial houses. The song basically expresses the anguish of the people who feel neglected. They [the industrialists] should have taken it as a wake-up call. "We've made progress and been called "Shining India" and yet we have a large population that's completely neglected," he said. Prof Rachel Dwyer of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London said a film such as Chakravyuh was not likely "to be well disposed to capitalists and industrialists." "The surprise here is that it names actual current companies, which is not like naming a famous historic industrialist such as Rockefeller or evoking some generic Seth [rich businessman]," she said. Online promotional clips of the movie already run on YouTube with the subtitled disclaimer: "The references in the song are purely for illustrative purpose. We do not mean to disrespect or harm any individual or brand. Sid Bhatia, a journalist who has written a history of Hindi cinema, said the film-maker, may be tapping into public displeasure with the current system that has seen inequality grow since economic reforms in 1991 opened up the Indian economy. "I wouldn't be surprised if he felt that . . . there is anger against this 2G [telecoms spectrum scandal] and [the coal mining scandal] and come up with a song like that," he said. Still, it could be a "little bit of a publicity stunt as well . . . he's picked up the news headlines and seen that something like this has gone down well."