Dharma Productions‘ upcoming film Jugjugg Jeeyo has been accused of plagiarism on Sunday by a Pakistani singer, as well as a screenwriter from India, after the film’s trailer was launched.
Abrar Ul Haq took to Twitter and alleged that the makers of the film used his song Nach Punjaban without his consent. The singer threatened to take legal action against the filmmaker, “I have not sold my song Nach Punjaban to any Indian movie and reserve the rights to go to court to claim damages. Producers like Karan Johar should not copy and use songs. This is my sixth song being copied, which will not be allowed at all.”
The trailer of the film, starring Varun Dhawan, Anil Kapoor, Neetu Singh Kapoor, and Kiara Advani, featured a recreated version of the 2002 track by Haq.
Responding to this allegation, T-Series, on Monday, posted a note dismissing Haq’s claims and said the song was “legally acquired.” They also said that the UK-based Moviebox Records Label holds the rights to the track.
“We have 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 Moviebox Records Label, for the film Jugjugg Jeeyo produced by Dharma Productions,” stated T-Series.
The music label said detailed credits will be included, when the adapted song is officially released. “All due credits shall be included across all platforms when the song releases. As represented by Moviebox Records Label, the said song copyrights exclusively vest with Moviebox only, with all valid documents,” it added.
Moviebox Records Label also refuted Haq’s claims and said that his accusation was “defamatory.”
Haq, however, posted that his song “has not been licensed to anyone”. “If someone is claiming it, then produce the agreement. I will be taking legal action,” he wrote.
The film also faced another plagiarism accusation on Sunday, when a screenwriter named Vishal A. Singh posted a series of tweets on his Twitter account alleging that Dharma Productions has copied his story titled Bunny Rani, whose extract he had mailed to the production house in 2020, which they have made into Jugjugg Jeeyo.
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Singh provided the screenshots of his e-mail to Dharma Productions and said that he will lodge an official complaint against the company for plagiarising his story, which according to Singh was registered with the Screenwriters Association in 2020.
Singh also said that there are multiple incidents in the Hindi film industry, where scripts are used without the knowledge of the writer. He mentioned in his tweet that he has decided to raise his voice and stop this ‘malpractice.’ Further in his thread, Singh asked Johar “to start the truth and reconciliation process.”
Dharma Productions is yet to respond to Singh’s allegation.
Juggjugg Jeeyo is directed by Raj Mehta and is jointly produced by Johar’s Dharma Productions and Viacom18 Studios. The film is slated for a theatrical release on June 24.