‘Modification’, in the sense of perversion of the original, will amount to distortion or mutilation. The right to integrity prohibits any distortion, mutilation or other modification of the author’s work. The original tune’s history and context have been jeopardized. Whereas, Badshah’s music video version features a folk song born by sexually fetishizing a woman’s tragic life story. The original song is about a conversation between mother sitting with her daughter, tying her long and luscious hair. Secondly, the original song has a very specific context. Even though the industry might conventionally practice to lift parts of original compositions, credit has to be given to the original author and composer. In the case of Genda Phool, Badshah was criticized for not giving due credit to the actual lyricist as well as the singer Ratan Kahar, violating the right to paternity. Section 57 of the Copyright Act 1957, talks about the author’s special rights, better known as ‘moral rights’, which includes rights to paternity and the right to integrity. Genda Phool was accused of multiple grounds of copyrights violation. The catchy hook is taken from the Bengali folk song Boro Loker Biti Lo, originally written and sung by Ratan Kahar.
The music video, featuring the voice of Payal Dev, has Badshah romancing Jacqeline Fernandez at a Durga Puja event. One of the latest controversies in this domain would be Badshah’s new song Genda Phool.
The old song is decorated and developed with new beats and modern oomph.Īt times, coupling the old melodious harmonies with new instruments and representation, take a turn for the worst and aesthetically destroy the message of the original song.
#Sooraj dooba hai yaaro movie
A reprised version, retaining the essence of the original song is seen in the 2017 movie ‘Raees’. A good example here would be the famous song Laila Main Laila from the 80s. Traditionally, remixes were considered to be an alteration of just the beats and tempo of an old published song. Problems arise with the term ‘remix’ not being explicitly defined under the Copyright Act. This not only increases the ambiguity surrounding the laws relating to the remix culture but also creates issues with the ownership status of the remixes under the Indian Copyright Act.Īlthough the adaptations of musical works are protected under the Copyright Act, which mean it protects any arrangement or transcription to a musical work. A new and resourceful artist, capitalizes this old song by finding singers and composers to add some present day newness along with some extra beats. The new song is made by using audio mixing and adding and subtracting certain elements of the original track. Usually, the lyrics are kept the same but the bass and instruments are totally or partially altered. Indian Copyright laws are leaner towards preventing piracies and infringements, which show multiple loopholes in the law system.ĭo you remember the iconic songs Bachna Ae Haseeno, Gulabi Ankhe Jo Teri Dekhi, Disco Deewane, Tamma Tamma? Nowadays, it’s quite normal to remix and remake the catchy tunes or the hook part of these chartbuster songs, so as to fall under the category of an original work. With approximately, 20000 songs being released every year, Bollywood music is getting increasing confrontation on the copyrights end. This gave rise to the musical nature of Bollywood movies, wherein the lyrics convey the message more succinctly than dialogues. Telling stories by using musical representation has been an integral part of the Indian culture. Indian folklore and drama has always been heavily dominated by music. It seems as though there is always an air of bewilderment around the Copyright laws. Nowadays, celebrities often make dramatic news headlines with the turmoil caused by the grey areas in the Copyrights Act. The Copyrights Act was initially put into effect to protect an author’s or creator’s artistic works like music, literature, films, sculptures and so on. Author – Shruti Patekar and Prayank Khandelwal