Apologise or I will sue you: Rashid Khan to Pakistani musician
The music composer exclusively speaks to us on plagiarism claims against him by Pakistani musician Shuja Haider who accused him of copying his latest single from the latter’s 2017 song
Earlier this week, Pakistani musician Shuja Haider accused composer Rashid Khan of plagiarising his latest single, Piya Re Piya, from his 2017 song, Baaghi. Haider added that the melody and an entire verse were copied from his song without giving him due credit. Denying his claims, Khan says, “The music and lyrics of my song are starkly different. Yasser Desai, the singer of Piya Re Piya, also matched the notations for both the songs. Much like him, my friend Imran Abbas (actor-singer-producer) from Pakistan and my guru also feel that dono gaanon mein zameen aasmaan ka farq hai.”
He adds, “I didn’t even know who he (Haider) was. I’ve never heard his song before. Then how will I plagiarise it? Even if four notations from my composition match with his, I will leave my profession.”
Talking about how he feels Haider took a pot shot at him to “gain publicity”, Khan says, “I have composed music for 22 films in my career. I would like to believe that I have some credibility. Har gaana saat suron se hi banta hai, aur usmein se koi ek sur mil gaya toh iska matlab yeh nahin hai ki gaana unka ho gaya.”
The Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana (2017) music composer shares that he will be taking “legal steps on grounds of defamation if Haider doesn’t apologise” to him: “He’s trying to tarnish my image. No one has ever accused me of plagiarism and these claims are an insult to my years of training and experience.”
While copyright laws are important, he asserts that one shouldn’t misuse them for their own benefit. “These laws are to protect the rights of musicians. If there were any copyright issues, YouTube would have banned my song,” Khan ends.