Bollywood songwriter Pritam Chakraborty has landed in controversy for lifting tunes from a popular Bengali number for Ayan Mukerji's upcoming film "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani".
The peppy song "Badtameez Dil" featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone is facing allegations of plagiarism soon after the track went viral on YouTube last week. Social media users are raging debate about it being a copy of "Ranjana ami aar ashbona", the title track of a national award-winning film of the same name directed by Anjan Dutt.
"Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbona" is a rock musical released in 2011. The film, starring Anjan Dutt, Amyt Datta, Lew Hilt and Nondon Bagchi, won three national awards including for best music direction and best feature film in Bengali.
Commenting over the allegations against Pritam, Anjan Dutt said, "I don't want to accuse Pritam of anything because I have not compared the two tracks. But I must also add that copying tracks without proper attribution is unethical and rampant. As an artiste and musician, I feel this is no less than the crime of piracy," Times of India reported.
The veteran singer-songwriter said that even if he found any resemblance between the songs he would not fight over it, "No, I don't think you will hear me screaming anything against him... What do I get by doing this? Where do I go and complaint? And will anybody make me eligible for compensation even if I am able to prove that my tune has been lifted? In India, you will not achieve anything huffing and puffing over such matters. This is the reason why as an original artiste, you feel so vulnerable."
Pritam was backed by Anjan Dutt's son Neel against the recent allegation. "I want to clarify that there is absolutely no similarity between the two tracks. I know Pritam personally and he will not do anything like that," said Neel.
"Badtameez Dil" which fetched 13 lakh viewers in just four days of its release is sung by Benny Dayal and Shefali Alvares, and is choreographed by Remo D'Souza. Apart from Ranbir and Deepika, Kalki Koechlin is also featured in the song.
This not the first time Pritam was accused of copying songs. One of his compositions in 2006 film "Gangster" was alleged to be a copy of a track by a Kuwait-based band.
Other songs that were alleged to be copied were:
1. "Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai" from "Woh Lamhe": Copied from Peterpan's "Tak Bisakah"
2. "Yeh Ishq Hai" from "Jab We Met": Partly copied from Anggun's "In Your Mind"
3. "Dil Samandar" from "Garam Masala": Copied from Tarkan's "Kuzu Kuzu"
4. "Dhoom Machale" from "Dhoom": Partly copied from Jesse Cook's "Mario takes a walk"
5. "Aao Milo Chalo" from "Jab We Met": Copied from Peterpan's "Di Belakangku"
Check out the Video of "Badtameez Dil" below:
Check out "Ranjana Ami Aar Ashbona" by Anjan Dutt :
