The war between the two Diwali releases, Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, had been heating up over the past few weeks. It took a bitter turn on Saturday when the makers of Ajay Devgn’s cop actioner released the title track on YouTube and other social media platforms. Soon, T-Series, which has produced Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, issued a copyright strike as the song infused some elements from the original Singham (2011) theme, the rights of which rest with the music label.

As a result, director Rohit Shetty and his team had to pull down the title track from all platforms, rework the composition and have it uploaded again on Tuesday afternoon.

A source reveals, “The song included a 10-second element from the theme of the original Singham. As is customary, T-Series flagged off the content because using anything above three seconds [without owning the copyright] is non-permissible. Bhushan Kumar’s company issued a copyright claim, and the song had to be pulled down. A simpler way to do this would have been to reach out to Singham Again’s team and sort out the matter. Saregama, which is the cop fare’s music partner, uploaded the track on Tuesday after composer Ravi Basrur removed the contentious bits and stitched it together.”

This dispute is being viewed as a “clash effect” by the internet. Fans and industry observers feel that T-Series’ decision to enforce its copyright claim could be strategically influenced by the upcoming clash between Kartik Aaryan’s horror comedy and the Devgn-starrer.

Another source notes, “Since the Singham Again team had to upload the track again, it lost all the original viewership and likes on YouTube.”