Pritam gets a legal team

Composer, much accused of plagiarism, to initiate action against those who defame him!

"Even before the court decides against me, someone runs to the press, accusing me of lifting his compositions. This is defamation and I have a legal team in place now. They will initiate action on everyone who tries to rub me off the wrong way,” rues composer Pritam Chakraborthy, who is often blamed for ‘getting inspired’. The composer’s decade-long career has been plagued with controversies where he’s been charged by several artistes from around the world for lifting their tracks without permission. However, it hasn’t deterred producers from approaching him for original soundtracks.

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The most recent allegation was made by composer Anu Mallik alleged that Pritam had lifted one of his old compositions for the

Ready

song ‘

character dheela

…’. “I will speak when the time comes,” says the composer. “Earlier, it was only for music. But now people have started blaming me for lyrics too. ‘

Character dheela’

has been in public domain forever. Why can’t I use these terms freely?” The composer, who rose to fame with the scores of

Gangster, Woh Lamhe and Life… In A Metro

, admits he’s committed mistakes early in his career.

“Controversies that I’m embroiled in today are after-effects of the perception that people developed about me in my formative years in the industry. I’m a shy and reserved person and have remained quiet on most occasions when questions have been raised on my integrity as a professional,” he argues. “It’s been so easy to walk over me. I’ve had enough and I’m not going to keep to myself anymore. I’ve been very careful with my compositions over the last four years.” Pritam points out that plagiarism is an age-old disease in Bollywood: “Every decade has had its set of ‘lifters’ but the focus was on one person only. In the ’80s, Bappida was chased all around. Anu Mallik was the scapegoat in the ’90s. And I’m the current favourite.”