The major advantage that Bollywood soundtracks have had over most other global music industries is the innumerable instances of music plagiarism rearing its ugly head through the years and getting away with it. For the uninitiated, music plagiarism is a copy or close imitation of another author’s music while being represented as original work.
An example that immediately comes to mind is music director Shantanu Moitra’s Pal Pal Har Pal from Parineeta [2006], which was a direct lift from Theme For A Dream by Cliff Richard. Two other songs from the same soundtrack were also “influenced” — Kaisi Paheli Zindagani was lifted from Louis Armstrong’s 1951 track, A Kiss To Build A Dream On, and a line from Soona Mann Ka Aangan was plagiarised from Tagore’s Phoole Phoole.
Two years later, filmmaker Rakesh Roshan lost a lawsuit to Ram Sampat, a music director whose mus-ic was lifted by Rakesh’s brother Rajesh Roshan for Krazzy 4. Rakesh Roshan had to pay `2 crore as damages to Sampat.
But while some refuse to learn from past errors, thank goodness for those that do. The movie database website IMDb (http://www.imdb [1] .com/title/tt0248126/trivia) reports that in the smash 2001 hit Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Spice Girl Geri Haliwell’s rendition of It’s Raining Men was used without permission, and director Karan Johar was sued and made to pay compensation. Johar was a lot more vigilant when it came to his next venture in 2003 Kal Ho Naa Ho when the producers complied with international copyright laws and obtained a licence to localise — or Indianise — Roy Orbison’s Oh, Pretty Woman.
But it would be unfair to single out only Bollywood as offenders of copyright laws, as this indulgence occurs abroad too, though some never enter courts of law (such as, The Eagles’ Hotel California being influenced by Jethro Tull’s We Used To Know). But, then again, some do. For instance, in 1970, George Harrison released My Sweet Lord, whose musical similarities to He’s So Fine prompted original singers Chiffons to file a copyright infringement claim. A US district court found that Harrison had “subconsciously” copied their tune, and had him pay damages.
In June 2009, a music publisher accused Australian band Men At Work of stealing the melody to their ’80s smash hit, Down Under, from a campfire song known as Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree, a song that I used to sing — egad! — when I was a Boy Cub during my school days.
Publisher Larrikin claimed that the distinctive flute riff in Down Under was copied from the refrain of Kookaburra, a song about the native Australian bird, written in 1934 by a teacher named Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition. My fascination for the song stemmed from its lyrics recalling the pre-Mumbai days: “Lying in a den in Bombay…” In February 2010, the Court ruled that Larrikin’s copyright had indeed been infringed, and Larrikin was to receive five per cent of royalties from 2002.
Among the bizarre plagiary matters, one of the earlier instances involved one of my favourite musicians, John Fogerty, and what I believe is his best album till date, Centerfield, released in 1985. Almost 10 years later, in 1994, Fogerty was sued for self-plagiarism after leaving the Saul Zaentz-owned Fantasy Records, which held the publishing rights to Fogerty’s songs as a one-time member of Creedence Clearwater Revival. The Zaentz lawsuit claimed that The Old Man Down The Road — from the Warner released Centerfield — shared the same chords as CCR’s Run Through The Jungle. Fogerty ultimately prevailed when he showed that the two songs were entirely different by bringing his guitar to the witness stand, and played excerpts from both songs. The court made a precedent-setting decision when it ruled that an artiste cannot plagiarise himself.
Nevertheless, the finest aspect of the world going digital is that there is a lot more monitoring of plagiarism and, with it, protection of intellectual property although, paradoxically, Bollywood continues in its attempt to wrong copyright (get it?).
The writer has been part of the media and entertainment business for over 23 years, still continues to pursue his hobby, and earns an income out of it!
Links:
[1] http://www.imdb