Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 26, 2017)

Last week, Pritam opted out of Dinesh Vijan’s directorial debut, Raabta (Mirror, May 16), contending that he is opposed to sharing credits with another composer on the score. Now, Punjabi musician J-Star has claimed that his song, “Na Na Na Na” has re-recorded in Arijit Singh’s voice and used in the film without his permission as "Tu Mera Boyfriend".

“They (music label T-series) had approached me in January 2016 to procure the rights to the song. I didn’t agree to and was shocked to see them use it in Raabta without my permission. I have the legal rights to the song. I had released it under my label (J Star) and it has got 83 million hits worldwide,” J-Star told Mirror.

Responding to J-Star’s allegations, T-Series said, “Our new song 'Tu Mera Boyfriend' from the film Raabta is an adaptation of our earlier song, 'Girl Friend Boy Friend' (herein referred to as the “original song”) that was produced by T-Series in 2007 and released as part of its compilation album, Punjabi Blockbuster. It was sung by Gopal Sharma, composed by Sohrabuddin and written by Jitendra Raghuvanshi. All rights to the said song and the underlying components were acquired by T-Series through valid written agreements with said artists. By way of the above mentioned agreements, T-Series has the right to use any part of the original song or create an adaptation of it. In fact, J-Star infringed our song, released in 2007, and he should be thankful that T-Series did not take legal action against him for copyright infringement.”

Meanwhile, makers of the Telugu film Magadheera, directed by S S Rajamouli, have approached the Hyderabad court, demanding a stay on the release of Raabta, claiming it is an unofficial remake of their film.

Magadheera producer Allu Aravind said in a statement, “This is to inform the large public that we, Geetha Arts, the original makers of the film Magadheera, felt through various sources including the trailer and publicity material, that the Hindi film Raabta is being remade, violating the copyright. Hence, we approached the Hyderabad court seeking injunction against the film's release. The Hyderabad court issued a notice to Raabta producers and posted the matter for June 1 to decide whether Raabta should be permitted to release.”

T-Series released another statement, saying, “We are yet to receive the relevant suit papers and therefore cannot give a specific comment on the subject at the moment. We would like to, however, categorically reject even the remotest of suggestions that our film is a copy of Magadheera. We find it extremely unsavoury and disrespectful when people from the industry belittle someone’s hard work by using words like “copied”, “plagiarised” and nonchalantly jump to conclusions merely on the basis of a mere two-minute-14-second trailer, without verifying the facts or waiting for the film to release for the public to give its verdict. We hope that the Court will uphold this view and promote creative expression.”
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Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 26, 2017)

A day after the makers of Ram Charan-starrer Magadheera (2009) moved court against Raabta alleging copyright infringement, writers of the upcoming Hindi film have claimed there is no plot similarity. Up for release next Friday, the film stars Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon. “If it’s like Magadheera, it’s like any other reincarnation film. Then every filmmaker in this country who has made a movie on reincarnation and past life should slap a notice on us,” says scriptwriter Garima, adding, “This is an original story, conceptualised and written by Siddharth and me. We worked on it for five years. They [makers of Magadheera] are free to go through our script and research material. Or they can watch our film and decide.”

Her co-writer, Siddharth, says the story is as much about rebirth as karma. “It’s immature of them to file a case just on the basis of the trailer. They could have called up our director [Dinesh Vijan] and asked for a private screening of the film. We weren’t expecting a legal tussle. If they want to stall the release, they should have contacted us way in advance,” he adds.

Films are often targeted on the basis of assumptions, he argues. “Like in the case of [Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s] Padmavati, no one has any idea about the story but they are offended because they feel it’s portraying their queen in a bad light.”

Director Dinesh, who was busy with post-production, remained unavailable for comment. An official statement from the Raabta makers read, “We are yet to receive the relevant suit papers and therefore, cannot give a specific comment. We’d, however, like to reject even the remotest suggestion that our film is a copy of Magadheera. We find it disrespectful when people from the industry belittle someone’s hard work by using words like copied and plagiarised nonchalantly.”

The matter will come up for hearing on June 1.