"I will be taking legal action.”
Abrar-ul-Haq called out Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions for using his song ‘Nach Punjaban’ in its upcoming film Jugjugg Jeeyo “without acquiring rights.”
The cast of the film, including Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani, Neetu Singh and Anil Kapoor, shared the official trailer of the upcoming film on their Instagram handles.
Almost two minutes into the clip, with an altered bridge and somewhat the same chorus, ‘Nach Punjaban’ begins to play.
The original, released in 2002, is from Abrar’s album of the same name.
Taking to his Twitter handle, the singer had written: “I have not sold my song ‘Nach Punjaban’ to any Indian movie and reserve the rights to go to court to claim damages.”
The ‘Billo’ hitmaker went on to tag Karan Johar to assert: “Producers like Karan Johar should not use copied songs.
“This is my 6th song being copied, which will not be allowed at all.”
While written and performed by Abrar, it is pertinent to mention here that ‘Nach Punjaban’ is sourced to Moviebox Birmingham Limited on Spotify.
Following Abrar’s tweet, the UK record label’s Twitter handle stated its own, making Abrar’s case weaker.
It noted: “Nach Punjaban has been officially licensed for it to be included in the film Jugjugg Jeeyo by T-Series.
“Karan Johar and Dharma Movies have the legal rights to use this song in their film and the tweet by Abrar-ul-Haq earlier today is defamatory and completely unacceptable.”
Abrar-ul-Haq, albeit, tweeted again, claiming his song has not been licensed to any entity.
He shared: “Nach Punjaban has not been licensed to anyone. If someone is claiming it, then produce the agreement. I will be taking legal action.”
We have legally acquired the rights to adapt the song #NachPunjaban released on iTunes on 1st January, 2002 & available on Lollywood Classics' YouTube channel, owned by @1Moviebox, for #JugJuggJeeyo produced by @DharmaMovies. The song is available here: https://t.co/2oLFzsLAFI pic.twitter.com/t6u3p3RA6z
— T-Series (@TSeries) May 23, 2022
Now, T-Series has issued a statement addressing the matter on its social media handles.
Snubbing Abrar’s claims, it has assured: “T-Series has legally acquired the rights to adapt the song ‘Nach Punjaban’ from the album Nach Punjaban released on iTunes on 1st January 2002 and is also available on Lollywood Classics’ YouTube channel, owned and operated by 1 Moviebox Records Label, for the film Jugjugg Jeeyo produced by Dharma Movies.
“All due credits shall be included across all platforms when the song is released.”
It maintains that “As represented by 1 Moviebox Records Label, the said song copyrights exclusively vest with Moviebox with all valid documents.”
The screenwriter and Head of Creative Development (Script) at Dharma Productions, Somen Mishra, did not back down either.
Responding to the allegations, Somen shared Moviebox’s tweet to comment:
“I have no idea how people do film journalism without having basics in place, these are like basics of business, how these things work, see the music label.
“Problem is every moron’s got a Twitter account.”
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