This story is from August 26, 2014

Rajnigandha Shekhawat: Shouldn’t a self-respecting musician not claim credit for obvious lifts?

Rajnigandha Shekhawat talks about music in India
Rajnigandha Shekhawat: Shouldn’t a self-respecting musician not claim credit for obvious lifts?
“The concept of picking up a folk song, using it in a film with minor changes in notes, and claiming composer credit and copyright, is exactly like a foreigner registering copyright for discovering medicinal properties of neem or haldi or yoga and then saying that anyone using these needs to pay him royalty! My last folk album Banna Re’s tagline is explaining the same, it’s ‘folk songs that inspired Bollywood’, where I sang the original songs that have been used in films.
Of course, sans credit.
The right thing to do is to say ‘traditional’ in credits, but most composers are fairly shameless or brazen in admitting that their supposedly original composition is a popular folk song from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal or is a thumri, raag, bandish or something else, that was composed ages ago by a talented unknown artist and has survived the test of time. The more I learn about Indian and Western classical music and folk music, the more I discover how composers of Bollywood, from the beginning, have taken popular compositions and added their own name instead of giving credit honestly. Jaago Mohan Pyaare is a Raag Bhairav bandish, used in some film long ago, so was Ae Re Jaane Na Doongi which is a bandish, Ka Re Jaane Na Doongi. This list is endless. The funniest is Albela Sajan Aayo Re, because the song, which is also a bandish that every classical music student learns, even contains the name of its original creator, Manrang! How difficult is it to credit a song as traditional? It can still be used, folk is copyright free, so why the need to claim composer credit? And this by composers who are considered legends! Shouldn’t a self-respecting musician not claim credit for obvious lifts? Why do people call themselves composers if they can’t compose? I’m not even going in to the thousands of US, UK, Korean and Spanish songs that have been lifted over the decades here. This plagiarism is encouraged when the lifted compositions get popular acceptance and awards. Clearly, it’s not a matter of embarrassment to lift music. We all know of proven plagiarists being judges at reality shows on prime-time TV. As a budding singer with barely a toehold in Bollywood, I should, like every other person connected to the industry, keep quiet and look the other way, but frankly, I don’t think I’m wrong in pointing out something like plagiarism. I don’t care if I don’t find a spot in certain people’s good books. One still speaks about tunes lifted from foreign shores but melodies taken from folk and Indian classical don’t even find a mention. It’s like a trunk of open treasures and anyone can pick and claim whatever they picked to be their own creation! A melody becomes copyright free after 75 years, so what stops a musician from giving credit to it as ‘traditional’ or ‘thumri’ or ‘raag-based’? – Rajnigandha Shekhawat, Rajasthani folk singer
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