Vishal Dadlani warns ‘vultures’ from remixing his songs: ‘I will sue anyone, make your own songs’
Musician Vishal Dadlani of the Vishal and Shekhar duo has hit out at musicians who remix their songs without their ‘permission, due credit or remuneration’.
Singer-composer Vishal Dadlani does not fancy the idea of his songs getting remixed. He has issued a warning that he will go to court if any of their songs are remixed without their permission, due credit or remuneration.
Taking to Instagram, he wrote: “Warning: I WILL sue anyone making remixes of Vishal & Shekhar songs. I’ll even move court against the films & musicians. After Saaki Saaki, I hear upcoming bastardisations include Dus Bahaane, Deedaar De, Sajnaji Vaari Vaari, Desi Girl & more. Make your own songs, vultures!”
He further wrote, “Warning. Do NOT remix Vishal and Shekhar songs without our permission, due credit & remuneration. I will come for you hard, legally. Especially the musicians doing it. This will become very, very personal, even if you are a friend.”
The post invited a funny but sincere comment from filmmaker Anubhav Sinhaa who wrote that two of the upcoming remixes were from his films and he would soon send Vishal and Shekhar bank details. He said: “Two are mine. Will send you bank details.”
The musician’s representative said that while he was fine with cover versions which are put out for free, remixes released, even partly, as someone else’s song would not be accepted. Composers sign songs over to the producers of films, for use in a specific film with specific lyricists and actors. It was wrong for such songs to be used anywhere and everywhere without the original composers’ permission or involvement.
Vishal said in a statement, “I shall certainly exercise my legal rights if needed and even move courts against the films and the musicians, if it comes down to it. It’s not fair that anyone should be able to do this, and I’m sure that the Courts will see this for what it is. Daylight robbery of work, credit, opportunity and most crucially creativity.
Once again, I would like to ask my fellow musicians NOT to remix Vishal and Shekhar songs without our permission, due credit and remuneration. That is robbery, nothing more. Stop doing this, show some spine, and let yourself and all musicians be respected as a community.”
In recent times, remixes in movies have lead to fair amount of bad blood between filmmakers and musicians. The makers of Ayushmann Khurrana’s film Bala were dragged into a controversy when musician Dr Zeus accused them of stealing his songs. Dr Zeus called them out for picking his hit numbers Don’t Be Shy and Kangna Tera Ni without his knowledge. He took to Twitter to point it out and wrote, “Are u guys taking the p*** @sonymusicindia @MaddockFilms @Its_Badshah @SonyMusicUK @SachinJigarLive wen did u compose don’t b shy & kangna.. more to the point how dare u guys b riding off ma old hits & f***** them up??? Ya need to get original. My lawyers will b in touch.”
Responding to his comments, Bala’s makers, Maddock Films, said in an official statement, “Karman Entertainment owns the worldwide rights to the song ‘Don’t Be Shy’ by Rouge, the early 2000s classic dance hit, produced by Dr Zeus. Karman Entertainment gave an official license to Maddock Films for the re-creation rights of Don’t Be Shy, which is featuring in Bala starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar and Yami Gautam and directed by Amar Kaushik. The song video went live on 18. of October and has received an overwhelming response globally. The video and the single itself was teased on social media a day prior and the fun banter between the composers, Badshah and the lead actor, Ayushmann had everyone in splits.”
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