KARACHI: Singer and philanthropist Abrarul Haq on Saturday anno­unced that his lawyers in the UK had issued a legal notice to Moviebox Records Label for the “misappropriation” of his song ‘Nach Punjaban’ in Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar’s movie JugJugg Jeeyo, according to a Dawn.com report.

Last month, Haq took to Twitter and accu­sed Johar and his company Dharma Produc­tions of stealing his song and said he never sold them the rights to ‘Nach Punjaban’.

In response to Haq’s tweet, Moviebox had tweeted that the song had been officially licensed to be included in the film and that Johar and his company had the legal rights to use it in the upcoming movie. They also called the 53-year-old singer’s tweet “defamatory” and “completely unacceptable”.

Later, Haq clarified that his song had not been licensed to anyone and urged those making such a claim to produce an agreement. In the tweet, Haq had warned of legal action.

Record label T-Series had also issued a statement on Twitter and said they had “legally acqui­red the rights to adapt the song ‘Nach Punjaban’ that was ... available on Lollywood Classics’ YouTube channel, owned by Movie Box”.

Earlier this month, Haq had shared a video of himself saying: “A lot of fans have been asking me ‘why haven’t you gone to the court against Karan Johar and T-Series for stealing your song ‘Nach Punjaban’.

“The answer is yes I’m going to the court don’t worry. Merely saying that the credit has been given because the song is well written and would make their movie a hit. I never gave you the song, I never gave anybody the rights to my song. It belongs to me so I’ll get it back and I’m coming to the court, see you there.”

The song in the film is titled ‘The Punjabban Song’ and uses the exact same tune as Haq’s original but features different lyrics. It was released on May 28 and was shared by Johar as the first song from the upcoming film that saw Varun Dhawan, Anil Kapoor, Kiara Advani and Neetu Singh dancing to the popular chorus and hook of Haq’s song from his 2002 album Nach Punjaban.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2022